


An Artist Among Monsters

by ClanCrusher



Category: Monster Girl Quest, Ranma 1/2
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-09-02 14:43:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 24,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16789006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClanCrusher/pseuds/ClanCrusher
Summary: Ranma had been certain he'd never find a group of women more forward, aggressive, and crazy than his fiancees in Nerima. Of course, that was before Ryoga got him stranded in a world full of monster girls.





	1. Wake Up Call

“You wanna run that by me again?”

Ranma sighed, but humored the lost boy. “I think you can teleport.”

“Ranma...you're an idiot.”

“Wait! Hear me out! Your walking pace is about eight kilometers per hour, but you constantly make journeys from Tokyo to Nagano in less than a day. One time you ended up on Sado Island, but you didn't even swim or get wet. You're constantly lost, but eventually you always get to where you're going if you set your mind to it. If it's not teleportation, then what is it?”

Ryoga closed his eyes and glowered for a bit. Ranma could tell he was debating whether or not to throw a punch. “If I could teleport, I'd have used it to kick your ass a long time ago.”

“Yeah, but maybe you don't know you _can_ do it, and that's why you keep getting lost,” insisted Ranma. “Well, that and being generally clueless when it comes to directions.”

The blow came out fast, but Ranma was faster, jumping back and landing a few paces away, not even breaking the flow of conversation. “Look, aren't you at least a little bit curious how you can do these things? Maybe you could actually solve the problem if you knew what was happening.”

Ranma waited, watching the internal struggle play out on Ryoga's face. Finally, he responded. “What's in it for you? You'd never help me if you didn't have something to gain from it.”

“Um...because teleportation would be awesome. Duh.”

“It's not teleportation! When I travel I just...zone out a little bit, and then suddenly I'm in another place entirely and some time has passed. There's nothing special about it I just...don't know what happens.”

“Sounds like-”

“It's not teleportation!”

“Alright, how about we test it then?” challenged Ranma.

“Test it how? I can't just get lost on command.”

“Ryoga, you're always lost. The only thing that changes is how lost you are,” retorted Ranma. 

“That's it, you're dead!” The umbrella was out in an instant, the razor sharp parasol unfurling before it was flung in Ranma's direction.

Raising his hands up in the air, Ranma winced slightly as he caught it by the handle, the force of the fling and the weight of it making him slide back a foot before he stopped its momentum. Instead of tossing it aside though, Ranma folded it and casually tossed it back toward the charging Ryoga, halting him mid-stride as he caught it on reflex.

“Will you give it a rest, P-chan? Look, if I find out anything about your 'getting lost' technique, I promise to let you know, okay? Martial Aritst's honor and all that.”

Ryoga's expression shifted to one of contemplation before he slowly took the umbrella and strapped it back to his bag. “Fine...but you also have to tell me how to get back to Nerima.”

Ranma's eye twitched. “Ryoga, you're in the middle of the field at Furinkan High.”

The lost boy blinked, and slowly looked around, taking in his surroundings. Lines were painted on the grass and just off to his left was the large, unmistakable school building he had been looking for. “Huh...that's odd, I thought this was Hokkaido.”

“Unbelievable,” muttered Ranma beneath his breath. “Look, you want to visit Akane, right? Just try to go to the Tendo Dojo from here, and I'll follow along using this.” Reaching into his pocket, Ranma uncoiled a length of rope. “I'll just tie this to your bag and follow along behind you. Just pretend I'm not here.”

“If only it were that easy,” grumbled Ryoga. 

Ranma ignored the jab and tied himself securely to his rival's pack, giving himself enough slack to follow along behind at a distance while also making sure to tie the other end around his waist, just to be sure. “Ready when you are.”

“Right,” said Ryoga with a nod. “Um...which way should I go?”

“Just pick out the route you think is right,” said Ranma with a roll of his eyes. “The point is to try and see what happens when you get lost.”

Ryoga grumbled but hefted his pack and started off, walking steadily across the field. The direction seemed promising enough and the general route he was taking was the correct one, but it didn't take long for things to go downhill. Abruptly, and without warning, Ryoga took a ninety-degree turn down a side-street, moving so fast that Ranma had to jog to make the turn before Ryoga was completely lost from sight. A few streets later it happened again, the lost boy keeping his stride even as he made the sharp course corrections.

Stranger still, as Ranma looked up at a passing street sign to see where they were located, he realized that they were in fact two streets to the right of where they needed to be rather than left, yet he hadn't noticed anything amiss. Narrowing his eyes, Ranma focused in on Ryoga, watching for any sign of ki or magic. That sudden turn had to be a part of it, and yet as it happened once again, Ranma couldn't feel a thing...and yet they were even further away from the goal than last time.

Debating internally on whether or not to say something, Ranma ultimately chose to stay silent. There was something going on here, but he had no idea how or why it was happening. He needed to see it again to be sure. Closing his eyes for a moment, Ranma extended his senses, trying to see if there was anything in the air that changed, letting the rope be his guide for a moment and then...

_Plip._

There! That was something! Opening his eyes, Ranma fought back the urge to gasp as the surrounding city had been replaced by large, lush trees. His head twisted, taking in the sight while trying to recall what he had been hearing a moment before. There hadn't been a cut off of sound, just a gradual fading as the new environment set in, but the city wasn't even visible through the gaps in the trees.

“Hey Ryoga, stop. I think we...” Ranma paused, realizing quite suddenly that the tug from the lost boy's pace was gone. Pulling the rope back toward him, Ranma's eyes widened as he saw that the cord had been neatly severed with razor sharp precision. “Okay...that's not normal.”

And nothing was normal about his surroundings, either. Forests weren't uncommon in Tokyo, but this was something else entirely. No path, no noise from the city, no sounds of humans or cars, and from the elevation, it didn't seem like he was close to a mountain, either. 

“Okay Ranma...relax, you're not Ryoga, you have a sense of direction. Just find a place high up and-”

**BOOM! ******

********

********

The sound of an explosion ripped through the quiet woods, followed by an intense shockwave that bent the trees backward and nearly knocked Ranma off his feet. The air, which had been still moments before, was now saturated with an alien energy that made his skin tingle and his senses go haywire. “God dammit Ryoga, where the hell are we?”

Taking to the trees, Ranma kicked off the branches and quickly closed in on the source. The energy was dissipating as quickly as it had arrived, but something was still there at the point of origin. Either the cause or the recipient. Breaking into the clearing and pushing through the cloud of dust, Ranma skidded to a halt on the damp grass and saw a woman in the middle of the crater that had formed.

“Hey! You okay?” he shouted out, stepping closer, only to recoil in surprise at the sight. The woman on the ground was only partially one. As the dust cleared, more of her features were revealed, and suddenly Ryoga's potential teleportation powers weren't the strangest thing he'd seen today.

Her skin was a soft violet color and outrageously long silver hair was splayed out on the ground beneath. Strange markings covered her body, decorating her side like a series of intricate tattoos, and her clothing, such that it was, left almost everything on display.

All of that, however, was a side show compared to what was below her waist. In the place of human legs was a long, thick, two-toned red tail covered in scales and stretching out at least a dozen feet, giving her a very serpentine appearance. Ranma's mind raced, trying to think of any explanation as to her presence. Was this another Jusenkyo victim?

His gut was telling him no, but his senses were telling him that this was the source of the explosion. It looked like she'd been on the losing end of a fight, but oddly enough, there wasn't a mark or blemish on her body to be seen. Pushing his sense of foreboding to the side, Ranma knelt down next to her and placed two fingers on her neck. A pulse. That was good. She looked to be breathing normally, too.

“Hey, are you okay?” he repeated, softer this time.

The flower in her hair, which Ranma had initially dismissed as a decoration, suddenly moved, green vines sliding out and wrapping tight around his wrist. “What the-” A second later, golden eyes opened and a hand snapped towards his throat, powerful fingers squeezing down hard. “Gurk!”

“You...what were you about to do?” she demanded, tightening her grip as Ranma grabbed at her wrist and tried to alleviate some of the pressure. “Are you just a thief, or were you hoping to take advantage of a helpless monster?”

Unable to speak, Ranma responded with action instead, abandoning the hold on her wrist and striking hard at the elbow. The fingers went slack and Ranma moved, yanking hard at the vines and jumping to his feet, right before having to quickly duck underneath a wide-sweeping blow from her tail. “Gah...what the hell was that for?”

Slowly, almost lazily, the snake-woman pulled herself into an upright position, settling her human body back just a bit to make it seem like she was lounging on her own coils. Her arms crossed beneath her breasts and her golden eyes narrowed in on him. For all intents and purposes, the pose looked relaxed and almost serene, but Ranma could feel the immense power building. “I traveled here to see if humans were worth the hassle of living with. I'm thankful to have my question answered so succinctly.”

“I was only checking your pulse!”

“The sheer cold will destroy your body!” 

Ranma's vision went white for a moment as a ball of concentrated...something manifested in the snake-woman's hands, drawing in energy from the air around it before she almost casually tossed it in front of her. The temperature in the air suddenly dropped several degrees, and a moment later the ball exploded.

The martial artist had been moving even as she spoke, diving behind one of the stronger looking trees in the area before the ground shook with the force of the detonation. Frost blanketed the area in an instant and countless shards of ice erupted from the point of impact, surging forward with enough force to penetrate the tree Ranma was hiding behind, narrowly missing his legs and head.

“Perish in an icy hell!”

The shards embedded in the trees and the ground shuddered as a chilling wind whipped up around him, gale force winds battering at his body as a full-blown tornado formed, picking up all the icy shards and turning them into numerous, lethal projectiles, spinning around him with increasing intensity. Ranma's hands flashed out at amaguriken speeds, catching and deflecting the shards that came near him, but his footing was slipping on the icy ground and the winds were only getting stronger. There was only one place the magic wasn't touching, and that was directly in front of him.

“Will you just listen to me for a second?” shouted Ranma, ignoring the chill as best he could before making a mad dash towards the edge of the chilling vortex, ducking and dodging around the blades of ice as he moved, but the projectiles were simply too numerous. Cuts opened up on his legs and arms as ran before he finally broke through the edge of the tornado, directly on top of the caster.

“I'm not trying to steal from you!” His words were accompanied with a hard kick toward her human body, his foot bounding off of her snake-body to give him the air he needed to strike out at her human half. To his surprise, she didn't even try to block, letting the foot impact her neck with barely a flinch.

Twisting through the air and landing at her back, Ranma sprung toward her a second time. “And I'd never attack a sleeping opponent!” His fists blurred and blows rained down upon her, striking repeatedly in the same spot. Her skin was soft and flawlessly smooth, and yet his punches landed with little visible impact before she shifted and twisted around in her coils to face him once more, her hand sweeping out, forcing him to retreat in the face of several more lethal looking ice spikes that were formed in the air and shot towards him point blank.

“Why do I always encounter the crazy ones?” lamented Ranma as he formulated his next plan of attack. Her magic was easy enough to read, but covered such a wide swath of destruction that dodging was only going to get him so far, and that same strange magic almost seemed like it was protecting her from all but the most superficial harm.

“Your flesh will be seared from your bones! Say hello to Ilias once I send you to her!”

“Who the hell is Ilias?!”

The magic in the air shifted again, and suddenly sweat was dripping from Ranma's brow. He didn't need to see the energy forming in her hands or feel the shift of temperature in the air to know what was coming next, and he was already on the move by the time the firestorm was unleashed. In the blink of an eye, a wide swath of trees at his back were vaporized and a multitude of fireballs were soon dogging his path, detonating into large pillars of fire that rose above the tops of the trees.

Ranma poured on the speed, his body becoming a blur as he dodged, slipping into the Soul of Ice and cooling his aura to quell the errant cinders striking him. This power was insane. The creature hadn't even moved from her spot since the battle started, and the huge expenditure of magical energy didn't even seem to phase her.

Skidding to a stop on the wet grass, Ranma brought his palms outward and took aim, building up his confidence and shouting out his attack to give it form. “Moko Takabisha!” The blue missile of ki streaked through the trees towards his target, only for that long tail to suddenly move and smack it skyward to burst harmlessly in the air. Ranma was already moving though, circling around her and letting loose with several more ki blasts, some of them aimed at her, others aimed at the dirt, kicking up clouds of dust to obstruct his follow up shots.

Or at least, that was his plan, right before his opponent brought her tail down and struck out at the air, a potent gust of wind following behind it and dissipating the dust cloud immediately. Even so, some of his shots managed to slip through, but just like his punches, the bursts of energy didn't even make her flinch.

“Your ignorance will not spare your demise. You're clearly one of Ilias' so-called heroes just waiting to destroy any monster you come across.”

Ice again. Forming at his feet this time. A least a hundred meters in every direction. There was only one safe place. Forward. Ice spires as big as his body burst from the ground right as his foot left the grass, but Ranma barely noticed the near miss. Ki was channeling into his arms and fists, building up for an all-or-nothing attack.

“Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken!”

The snake-woman hadn't put up a defense and Ranma was quick to exploit it, raining blows down upon her human half faster than the eye could see, striking everywhere from her face to her stomach, hoping to find some vulnerable point in her defenses. From the way her snake body recoiled, it seemed like she was surprised at least, but soon she was striking back, her hands moving at appreciable speeds as she began to steadily deflect and counter attack, forcing Ranma to twist in the air and kick off her snake body to continue the assault from another angle.

It was right at that point that Ranma was reminded that her tail wasn't for show, as the lamia twisted and struck out with dizzying speed, smacking him right out of the air and sending him crashing through the forest of icicles.

“The fires of hell shall purge you!”

The cold disappeared and the heat returned. He didn't need to see through the mass of ice to know what was coming, only that he needed to move. He'd barely gotten to his feet before the fire hit, instantly melting the ice around him as the inferno raged through the forest. With nothing to hide behind that the fire couldn't consume, Ranma flung himself to the side, the ice melting and the wave of water passing over him.

_Not much of a tactical thinker...the ice got in the way of her fire..._

“No more games. This last strike will finish...” The words on the her lips stalled and then died out completely. “You...who are you? You're not a human at all!”

Ranma blinked and then looked down. Oh right, the water. His curse had triggered and he hadn't even noticed it in the chaos. “Er...”

“Right through here! Douse those fires! Protect the village at all costs!”

Voices began to echo through the trees along with the heavy clank of metal. Twenty-two from the ki signatures she was reading, but none of them seemed to be anywhere close to the power that the monster was giving off, and given what she'd just said about humans minutes before...

“Hmph. What a waste of time. You should flee, monster. These Ilias-blinded fools aren't nearly as merciful as I.”

“You call that-” she began, only for the lamia to fade right before her eyes. “-merciful?” 

The overwhelming energy dissipated, leaving Ranma alone in the devastated clearing. “What in the hell just happened?” she said aloud, slumping to a sitting position on the wet and charred ground. Even Saffron hadn't pulled out this level destruction so casually, and his own attacks hadn't done a damn thing.

“Where in the hell am I?”

If there was any more evidence Ranma needed that she wasn't anywhere near Japan, the sight of the group of humans clad in full-on metal armor as though they'd walked out of the set of a medieval European era was the final nail in the coffin. That wasn't the only surprise though, as several more humans behind them dressed in long robes were tending to the fires, conjuring water out of the air to quell the blazes that had been left behind. “Huh...that looks useful.”

“Miss, are you okay? What happened to the monster who did this?”

Several of the soldiers were quick to come to her side, along with another of the robed humans whose hands were already glowing a soft white color.

“Don't know...she threw a ton of energy around and vanished when she heard you coming,” said Ranko honestly, a soothing feeling passing over her body as that white energy made contact with her. The question was why? Even _she_ could have taken this group on, and the snake woman could have obliterated them with a casual gesture of her hand.

“Can you stand? Do you need to be carried?”

Ranma shook her head, taking a breath and getting to her feet. Aside from the cuts she'd taken from the ice tornado, she was relatively uninjured, and the soft white energy being employed by the robed figure was already closing her wounds. Her clothing was more than a little tattered though, burned in several places where she hadn't been fast enough to dodge the fire. “No, I'm fine...somehow.”

The mage standing next to her nodded to the soldier. “No serious injuries. You're lucky to be alive, miss...”

“Saotome. Ranma Saotome,” she filled in for him. “I'm uh...not from around here. I come from pretty far away, actually.”

“Sentora? Which region?”

“Um...the forest one?” provided Ranma hesitantly.

“You mean Grand Noah?”

“Yeah, that place. Sorry, my mind is a little fuzzy right now. Something that monster did kinda...” She waved a hand around her head as if to indicate some sort of amnesiac like state, hoping that the soldiers and mages surrounding her would fill in the blanks.

“Must have been a mental technique,” said the mage immediately, his head tilting downward slightly to look her in the eyes. “Do you remember anything about the monster? What she looked like, perhaps?”

“Half snake, half human,” provided Ranma, making a show of rubbing her head and groaning slightly. “So um...this might sound like a stupid question but...where am I?”

\----------

An hour later, Ranma's head was spinning for reasons entirely unrelated to her 'mental condition'. A map was laid out before her, and no matter which way she looked at it, there was nothing even remotely akin to Earth on there. Instead, there were a grand total of four different continents, with most of the world's land mass in a centralized location, and from what she'd been told, she was on the continent furthest south. From what she was reading, it also seemed as though this Ilias was a rather big deal here.

“Blessings of Ilias be upon you, child. You have my deepest sympathies for what you've had to endure. Monsters have only been causing more problems recently, even in a place so wholly devoted to Ilias,” said the nurse as she came back around to Ranma's bed. “Has the goddess blessed you with any insight into your forgotten memories?”

“No, no goddess yet,” said Ranma, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. “Pretty sure my memories are going to have to come back the old fashioned way.”

Ilias Continent, Iliasville, Iliasburg, Ilias Port, Ilias Temple...was this entire continent really that devoted, or did this Ilias goddess have a superiority complex? It was tempting to ask the priest looking after her, but she had a feeling that would have been pushing the amnesia thing a little too far.

“Well, be sure to be dutiful in your prayers to Ilias and I'm sure she will bless you with a swift recovery,” the priest reminded her. “In fact, I can pray with you right now if you'd like.”

Ranma hesitated. “That won't be necessary. I uh...already did that a couple times.”

The priest nodded, giving her a kind smile. “Well, you're welcome to stay here for as long as you need to recover. Perhaps the church can help you find someone who knows you. If there's anything I can personally help with, do let me know.”

Whatever the deal with their goddess was, the priests did seem nice enough. “Actually, I could use some warm water if you don't mind. Goes down a bit easier than cold.”

With a nod, the priest departed, leaving her alone with the map and the various books at her bedside. For the tenth time that hour, Ranma cursed Ryoga. “I told that idiot it was teleportation,” she grumbled. Come to think of it, hadn't that snake-woman used something similar when she fled from the fight? And why had she fled from the fight to begin with? She'd said something about Ilias too, hadn't she?

Lost in thought, the redhead barely noticed the warm water being delivered to her bedside. Maybe this Ilias was the only one protecting them from monsters like the one she'd just encountered. Clearly it must have been needed if the ki signatures of the warriors and priests in the temple were anything to go on.

If there was one small saving grace, it seemed that everyone at least read and spoke Japanese. That in and of itself raised even more questions, but Ranma wasn't going to complain about the convenience, as the inconveniences had already piled up to a rather dizzying height. It was tempting to see just how much he could use the temple to his benefit, but he couldn't quite shake the uncomfortable feeling he got from simply being here. As if every one of his actions were being watched and scrutinized.

Grabbing the warm glass of water from the stand, Ranma splashed it over his head, shifting back into his male form before promptly opening the window at his bedside and leaping out, hitting the ground with barely a sound. The map was already fully memorized, but he only had an inkling of where he wanted to go or what he wanted to do.

“Took you long enough. I didn't think I'd hit you that hard.”

The hairs on Ranma's neck rose slightly as he heard a familiar voice. He hadn't even sensed her presence. Turning slowly, Ranma came face to face with the snake woman he had been fighting just hours earlier except...

“That's a terrible disguise,” he said bluntly.

The snake woman did indeed look 'human' in the sense that she'd gotten the general body shape and skin tone right, but that only seemed to make her stand out all the more. The intricate markings on her body remained and now extended to her bare thigh, and the only clothing she'd seemed to have added was a pair of thigh high boots. Not even Shampoo's most risque outfits had ever been quite so...exotic.

“Maybe. But humans are idiots,” said the disguised snake-woman.

“Good morning, lovely day we're having here, isn't it?” said a passing guard with a nod towards the pair.

“Praise Ilias for such a beautiful, monster free day! I feel entirely secure within her great temple,” said a priest a moment later, walking the opposite direction.

“Wasn't there just a huge monster attack an hour ago?”

“Yes, but it wasn't attacking the temple itself now, was it?”

Ranma resisted the urge to sigh at that. How could she possibly be...

“It's not just a physical disguise, is it?” he said suddenly, peering closer. “You're doing something with your aura. Making people look past you instead of at you.”

“Perceptive,” said the 'human' with a nod. “Though I doubt these Ilias-worshiping idiots would notice even without it. You're clearly not one of them, though. In fact, I don't even think you're fully human, which is odd since I can't sense any monster blood in you.”

“Hate to break it to you, but I'm entirely human,” said Ranma simply. “Why did you follow me here, anyways?”

“Curiosity. I've never seen a human change into a full female before. What's your secret?”

“It's a curse I'm trying to get rid of. I picked it up in a strange place.”

“Who are you?” 

The flash of her eyes was the only warning Ranma had before a sudden feeling of euphoria washed over him. His mouth was moving before his mind could catch up and words came spilling out of his mouth. “I'm Ranma Saotome, Miss Monster. Nothing more than a lowly human with a shape changing curse activated by hot and cold water.”

As quickly as it had come, the daze was gone, leaving Ranma feeling slightly dizzy in the aftermath. “Nnhh...what the heck was that?”

“A high level monster technique,” said the woman simply. “My eyes can do many things.”

“You could have just asked me my name!”

“I could have,” she agreed. “Where are you from?”

“That's...” Ranma hesitated. “...hard to explain.”

Her eyes flashed again. “Where are you from?”

“Nnhh...f-from...Nerima, Tokyo Miss Mon-will you cut that out?!”

“You broke it,” observed the monster idly as she rather suddenly pulled out a book and flipped it open, a frown forming on her face. “Interesting. I don't see any mention of that in the traveler's guide.”

“I told you it was complicated,” grumbled Ranma, shaking off the dizzy feeling. He'd managed to push enough of his aura in the way to interfere with the second eye-attack, but he had a feeling she was only partially trying. “So...are we fighting, or what?”

“As amusing as it would be to destroy this temple, that's not why I'm here. I was curious about the one who was so brazen to approach a powerful youma and try to steal from her.”

“I wasn't trying to steal from you!”

“Was it something perverted then?”

“What? No! I was...look, if you don't believe me, use that eye thing again,” said Ranma quickly, desperate to clear his name.

The disguised monster considered it for a moment, then her eyes flashed. This time Ranma didn't resist, letting his body relax and his eyes unfocus. “Why did you approach me in the forest?”

“Because I wanted to make sure you were alright,” came his immediate reply. “I heard an explosion and I saw you lying unconscious in the middle of the woods, so I ran over to see if I could help, Miss Monster.” Internally, Ranma grumbled as the technique seemed to force him to speak with exceeding politeness.

The monster regarded him for a few seconds before closing her eyes and sighing. “Alipheese Fateburn.”

Blinking, Ranma felt the hypnotic like state vanish abruptly. “What?”

“My name. Alipheese Fateburn. Or Alice for short. I...suppose I owe you an apology for jumping to conclusions and attacking you. I didn't think there were any monster sympathizers this far south in the world.”

“I...” Ranma hesitated. The number of times he'd actually been given an apology for someone jumping to conclusions and attacking him could be counted on one hand...with plenty of fingers left over. “It's alright. I'm used to it.”

Alice frowned. “You're used to monsters attacking you over misunderstandings?”

“Well...not monsters specifically but...” He shrugged. “Misunderstandings? Yeah, those happen all the time. Almost all of my first meetings start off with a fight.”

Alice frowned, folding her arms beneath her breasts. On the edge of his senses, Ranma could just barely detect her aura extending to include him as a crowd of priests left the temple with a retinue of guards in tow. The level of control was impressive, which briefly made him wonder why she'd been so wasteful with her abilities in their fight.

“So...you're from somewhere that I've never even heard of and isn't marked on any map, you have abilities far beyond what should be normal for a human, a curse that turns you female, and a habit of fighting everyone you meet for the first time. Clearly if I leave you on your own, you're going to be beating up helpless monsters left and right.”

“Hey, it's not like I go looking for fights! They just...find me. A lot,” protested Ranma. “Besides, if they're anything like you-”

“I'm one of the most powerful monsters in the world right now,” said Alice shortly. “Probably even the most powerful. But you're still dangerous to everyone else.”

“What? No I'm not!” 

“What would you do if a weak, hungry slime girl came up to you, desperate for some food?”

“I...would try to feed her?” said Ranma uncertainly. What the hell was a slime girl?

For the first time since their conversation started, Alice smiled. Ranma began to get a sinking feeling in his stomach as he felt a trap closing around him. “Would you now? Care to prove it?”

\----------

“Wait so...that's a slime girl?” asked Ranma, eyes wide as he peeked out from behind the bush.

“Yes. What were you expecting?”

“Something a little less...literal,” said the martial artist hesitantly. Indeed, the female figure seemed to very much be living up to her species name. In place of a normal body, an opaque gooey substance had been shaped into something approximating a humanoid female, though near her feet, the 'body' seemed to dissolve into a pool of slime.

Yet, for however alien she looked to him, her expressions and emotions were clear. She was frightened, and from the sound of it, sniffling a bit and trying not to cry as she sat in a pool of water. “What scared her?”

“She was searching for some food when some loud explosions scared her off. Then she was forced to hide from a bunch of guards from Ilias Temple,” explained Alice.

“So...it's your fault she's like this then-hey!”

The martial artist stumbled forward as Alice's tail suddenly struck out at his back and pushed him forward. “No time to be pointing fingers, she's hungry.”

Whirling around, Ranma was about to deliver a retort, but Alice had already vanished from his sight and his senses. A moment later he had more pressing concerns as a shriek of surprise reached his ears. “A human! G-go away! I'm a vicious monster!”

Turning back, Ranma quickly held up his hands in a warding gesture. “No, it's okay, I'm not here to hurt you! I um...I heard you crying and I was worried.”

The slime girl sniffed, wiping a gooey hand against her face. If it weren't for the sounds she was making, the martial artist never would have been able to tell if she'd been crying or not. “I wasn't crying,” she said defiantly. “A-and I wasn't scared of all the humans around, either!”

“They're not around anymore, it's just me right now.” And an obnoxious snake-woman, but that was neither here nor there. “Are you sure you're okay? Do you need any help?”

The slime girl sniffed again. “N-no...I'm just a little emotional because it's been so long since I've eaten.”

Again, Ranma couldn't help but feel like Alice had closed a trap of some kind around him, yet for the life of him, he couldn't figure out what it was. The slime girl didn't seem especially powerful, and from what he was sensing, a good portion of her body was a mixture of water and that strange magic that Alice had used. “Maybe I can help with that,” he offered, cursing internally. Even if Alice was setting up a trap, it was difficult to turn away from a crying girl, monster or human.

“You...you would?” asked the slime girl, her eyes turning hopeful...or at least he was pretty sure they were hopeful. The more subtle expressions were hard to read given the single solid color her face was.

“Yeah...what do slime girls eat, anyways?”

The girl tilted her head. “You...don't know?”

“Nope. You're the first slime girl I've ever seen,” he replied honestly. “My name is Ranma, by the way.”

“Lime,” said the girl distractedly, still giving him a curious look. “Are you sure you're okay with feeding me?”

“Positive. I may not look like it, but I'm a pretty good cook,” insisted Ranma.

“Oh...okay. Could you take off your pants then?”

Ranma blinked. And then blinked again. Slowly, he brought a finger to his ear and swirled it around a couple of times. “I'm...sorry did you just say...”

“Well I could work with them on, but then they'd get all sticky,” said Lime matter-of-fact. Slowly, her slime started to quiver again. “You...you don't want to feed me, do you? It's okay...I'll survive, somehow.”

“W-wait! No! I just...here!” Fumbling slightly, Ranma pulled the drawstring on his pants and let them fall to his ankles, avoiding looking in Lime's direction, his instinctive desire to avoid a crying girl quickly outstripping his common sense as it so often did in these situations.

“Yaaay! Thank you!” Like a switch had been flipped, Lime's tears vanished and her mouth perked up into a bright smile. Ranma only had a moment to realize that Alice might not have been the only one in on this trap, but it was too late to back out now.

Sliding across the ground, Lime practically tackled his exposed, lower body. Arms wrapped tightly around his waist and those slick, slightly sticky breasts pushed right up against his groin where his manhood was already starting to perk up. His first instinct was to jump away, but the pool had already formed around his ankles, keeping him stuck there while slowly enveloping his shins. “Am I your first monster, too?” said Lime cutely, a gooey tongue coming out to lick her lips. “Don't worry, I'll make it feel really good!”

And she was quick to make good on her word, too. Her body was just firm enough to give it weight, yet malleable enough that her breasts could squeeze and envelop him from every side, the tip of his shaft peeking up between towards her mouth where her tongue was waiting and ready to coil around it and give it a thorough lick. Even Shampoo had never been so brazen and that, more than the gooey embrace and slowly encroaching slime, was what kept him rooted to the spot.

A surprised moan left him, the martial artist nearly falling to his rear, but Lime's body was supporting him now, her tongue and lips getting more aggressive as she leaned in and took in the entirety of his tip, a powerful suckling sensation soon following that made his entire body tremble with pleasure. Stranger yet, he could see his shaft through her body, only partially obscured by her gooey form.

“Mmhh...you're tasty! I want more!” Her voice came out perfectly clear despite her 'mouth' being obstructed, and yet as she spoke, Ranma could feel the vibrations of her slime. Her head moved, and suddenly the entirety of his shaft was buried inside of her, the goo caressing, squeezing, and gently shaking around his length. His body threatened to pitch forward and his hands reflexively came out to Lime's shoulders to steady himself, only for his fingers to sink into her body and become trapped there. Already he could feel his manhood twitching and pulsing at the wholly unique sensations.

Soul of ice...soul of ice. Dammit, he couldn't be this close already!

“Hehe..it's pointless to resist! Have a taste of Slime Heaven!”

Ranma's lower body was almost entirely enveloped now, the girl's breasts pressed firmly against his thighs while her head bobbed up and down rapidly along his length, her tongue swirling around him relentlessly while her arms clenched tight around his rear. Shuddering gasps and increasingly loud moans left the martial artist's lips as Lime worked his body over, culminating in a delicate wrapping of her goo around his balls and a firm squeeze that almost immediately pushed him over the edge.

The sight of his seed coming out in spurts into her gooey body was a surreal and somewhat humiliating sight. Ranma couldn't stop himself now though, made to watch as he surrendered to the slime girl's exotic body and potent technique. By the time he'd subsided, a cloud of his seed was floating almost aimlessly in the center of her mass, gradually dissolving, and Ranma could feel the slime girl's energy increasing as she absorbed his seed.

“You...you actually feed...from that?” gasped Ranma.

“Every monster does, silly!” said Lime with a giggle, her once shy and nervous persona entirely gone now. “Haa...wow, you taste really good. Like... _really_ good! And you're still hard, too! I want more. Can I have more? Pleeeeease?”

Ranma hesitated, his body trembling. This seemed like a bad idea. His body was feeling a fair bit weaker than he expected, all of his energy seeming to be drawn between his legs and his still hard shaft. Another strange monster ability? His mouth opened to reply, but another voice cut in first.

“You get one more meal, and that's it.” Alice had appeared behind him once again in her human form without so much as a ripple of wind, though that was secondary to the embarrassment of being seen with his pants down like this.

Lime seemed less surprised by the snake monster's presence. “Aww...but-”

“No buts. Any more food and you're likely to divide.”

“H-hey, a little privacy please?” snapped Ranma, his cheeks red as he looked between Lime and Alice.

“If you wanted privacy, you should have fed her somewhere else than the open woods,” said Alice, unsympathetic as she looked over Ranma's shoulder from behind.

“You were the one who-mmph!”

In a smooth motion, Alice's hand slipped around to his front and covered his mouth, her warm latex fingers silencing his protests. “Don't mind him, he says strange things sometimes,” said Alice to Lime. “Please, continue.”

“Okay!” said Lime happily, wasting little time in doing just that. With Alice and Lime both restraining him now, Ranma had little hope of escape, and the slime girl was far more energetic and aggressive than before, pushing herself to the hilt of his shaft and wracking his body with increasingly intense vibrations and powerful suckling sensations. In a sense, Ranma was almost grateful for Alice covering his mouth, as he was certain his cries would have reached the temple otherwise.

Alice wasn't idle though. He could feel her full breasts pressing against his back, and the strange substance on her fingers, which he had initially thought were gloves, were proving to be anything but as they flexed and moved like a second skin, one finger even going as far as to push into his mouth to gently stroke his tongue.

Focusing on his soul of ice technique was helping a bit more after his first climax, but the longer he held on, the more the monsters seemed to get excited, until Alice suddenly plunged her other hand downward and slipped into Lime's body, fingers moving easily through the slime as they coiled around Ranma's manhood.

“Mmphh!”

“Hey! That's rude!” pouted Lime, shifting her body so that Ranma's shaft was sliding into her chest between her breasts instead of her mouth.

“I'm on a timetable and I need my subordinate,” said Alice simply. “Just be thankful for your meal.”

Lime pouted again, but didn't protest, and soon both monsters were starting to work him over in an utterly surreal experience that he could barely put words to. Those slim, latex fingers felt like they had coiled him from base to tip, the disguised monster stroking and teasing him with careful squeezes, gentle strokes, and some fine-tuned caresses at his most sensitive spots. The effortlessness in which she switched from one technique to the next left him gasping for breath, unconsciously sucking on the finger she'd left in his mouth.

At the same time, Lime was redoubling her efforts, sliding around Alice's fingers to massage every inch of Ranma's shaft that she could not, focusing a lot of attention on his sensitive sack and sending constant, mind-numbing vibrations throughout his whole body. Effortlessly, the two of them broke through his soul of ice, his moans spilling out unrestrained as the two monsters worked him over, the warm, smooth feeling of Alice's fingers combining with the enveloping coolness of Lime's slime to stimulate him past the point of reason.

In less time than the first, Ranma's hips began to buck, and a moment later another fresh wave of seed was spilling into Lime's body, the slime girl eagerly absorbing the meal with a smile on her face. “Ahh...so gooood,” she moaned out, licking her lips as she gave Ranma's sack one last squeeze to coax out whatever drops were left.

Her good mood faded slightly as her eyes turned toward the monster lord. “Hey, you took some!”

“Of course I did,” said Alice flatly. “You've had plenty. Overeating isn't good for you.” With a firm tug, Alice pulled Ranma back and uncovered his mouth as he slipped free of Lime's body. Even with his newfound freedom though, he was leaning against Alice more than not as he tried to catch his breath.

“But...but this is Ilias Continent! All the humans hate monsters here! I might not find another meal for days!”

Ranma let out a small groan as Alice seemed to seriously consider her argument. “Fine, one more meal for the road then.”

“Yaaay!” In a wave of slime, Lime practically leaped from her position to hug around Ranma's neck and place a kiss right on his lips, her slime turning out to be surprisingly tasty as he reflexively swallowed some of it. Wait, did he just swallow-

“Thank you, Ranma. I really appreciate it,” said Lime sincerely as she pulled back, her thighs already starting to envelop him below the waist once again.

The martial artist barely had a moment to acknowledge her thanks before Alice's hands were back, one arm wrapping around his neck and the other moving back to his groin as Lime spread out over the front of his body and begin to massage him anew.

A final thought slipped through his mind before a fresh wave of pleasure crashed into him, causing his eyes to roll back and his body to surrender to their embrace.

_This is all your fault, Ryoga!_


	2. Blade Dance

“That slime girl did something to me.”

Alice gave Ranma a blank look. “Yes. She did. We monsters refer to it as a blow-”

“No! I mean...yes, but she did something more than that! You were doing it too!”

“It's called feeding,” said Alice, maintaining her flat tone. “It's another thing we monsters do.”

“I meant _how_ you were doing it. When she was...when you were feeding, your energy was...trying to push into me to replace the energy I lost. Like you were trying to weaken me when I...”

“When you spilled your love juice into her body,” finished Alice. “Why are you so reluctant talking about this anyways? You said yourself you don't know anything about Ilias.”

“Ilias has nothing to do with it! That sort of thing just doesn't happen where I'm from!” snapped Ranma, trying to hide his embarrassment.

Alice smiled. “So oral play isn't a thing where you're from?”

“Gah!” Ranma sucked in a breath and forced himself to calm down. She was teasing him and he kept rising to her bait. “Look, that energy she tried to push into me-”

“She didn't do it on purpose,” interrupted Alice. “It's just how monsters work. You release energy when you achieve climax and a monster's energy slips in to replace it, weakening your body so they can continue feeding. Most monsters don't even consciously know they do it, only that it works.”

“Oh...yeah, that would explain it,” finished Ranma, pushing a log with his foot to keep the campfire in check. It had been some time since he'd really been roughing it like this, but a forest was a forest in any world it seemed, and acquiring enough materials for a fire, a shelter, and even a makeshift bed wasn't a difficult feat. He'd even managed to forage a pretty decent meal with a bit of help from Alice's traveler's guide, though all he'd needed was a glance to determine that the plants and berries were pretty much the same here as they were back home.

“So where are you going?”

“Iliasburg first,” said Ranma, thinking back to the maps and books he'd seen in the temple's hospital. “Need some camping supplies and some actual food for the road. Not sure how I'm gonna get money, but I'll look for something while I'm there. After that? North to Sentora and probably Grangold. Guide I read said something about them being the most technologically advanced city in the world, so if anything can help me get back home, it'd probably be that.”

“What's your home like?” asked Alice curiously.

Ranma thought for a moment. “Lot more crowded. And noisy. There aren't many quiet places like this. The air isn't as good, either. No monsters though...at least not like you or Lime. Speaking of...should I be setting traps?”

Alice shook her head. “They won't approach while I'm here. Most of the monsters roaming the wild are...simple minded. Their instincts will keep them away.”

“Oh...thanks, I guess,” said Ranma as he lay back onto the grass with a sigh. “So why are you following me then?”

“Because you can cook and I'm heading in the same direction,” said Alice simply. “In every direction, really. This is the first time I've ever been outside of Hellgondo and I want to see the world.”

“Really? Sounded more like you wanted to wipe out humanity.”

“Shut up, I was in a bad mood,” said Alice with a huff. “You try getting knocked fifteen hundred feet from the air to the ground and see what kind of mood you're in when you wake up.”

It was tempting to point out how much of an overreaction that was, but Ranma thought better of it. Unlike Akane, Alice was actually threatening...at least when she wasn't pouting like a spoiled child.

“I don't hate humans,” she continued, a bit more somber. “Although their blind devotion to Ilias is insufferably irritating. The priests at the temple could barely go two sentences without mentioning her name.”

“I take it she's not a monster fan?” asked Ranma.

“Her teachings stop short of outright genocide, but they encourage indirect genocide, since one of her edicts is that humans aren't allowed to have sexual relations with monsters. If all humans followed that, none of us would be able to feed or procreate.”

“Procre...wait, are there no male monsters in the world?” The surprise was clear in Ranma's voice.

“None that I've seen. One is born on exceptionally rare occasions, but all the monsters in this world right now are female.”

“That's...crazy.” There really was no other word for it. Magic of some kind had to be involved.

“That's one word for it. I'm going to get some sleep.” Rising up from her place beside the campfire, the lamia slithered towards a tree and then coiled around it, spiraling upward swiftly before settling around one of the branches.

“Huh...well I suppose if it's comfortable,” murmured Ranma before slipping into his own makeshift tent and settling in for the night.

\----------

“Iliasburg...famed for being the base of operations of the Traveler's Inns, various famous foods such as their Happiness Honey, and being the first stop for many adventurers on their long quests,” read Ranma aloud as he walked, with Alice following a ways behind in her lamia form.

“I plan to thoroughly indulge myself while I'm there,” said Alice. “Happiness Honey is said to be one of Ilias' Continent's most delectable delicacies.”

“Do you have any money?” asked Ranma pointedly. “I'm not even sure what type of currency this world uses.”

“Gold.”

Ranma blinked. “Like...literal gold?”

“Only one type of gold I know of. Also, monster.”

“But that means- huh?” His head turned and Alice suddenly vanished, all traces of her presence disappearing from his senses. A moment later, something was blocking the path.

“A traveler? Unbaptized? You look delicious.”

On first glance, Ranma might have mistaken her for a human female...if he'd been blindfolded and beaten senseless. Despite wearing a long dress and fancy bonnet, the creature’s deathly pale skin and strange eyes were instant giveaways to her true nature even before her aura became noticeable. Although...

“Okay, I give up. What kind of monster are you?” asked Ranma curiously.

Slowly, the pale girl reached a hand down to her dress and began to pull it upward, revealing a pink mass underneath where a pair of legs might have been. “Slug,” said the woman with a smile, slowly sliding across the ground toward him.

“Huh. Neat.” Taking a sharp turn, Ranma briefly deviated from the path and walked around her at a quick pace and then rejoined the path, leaving her behind.

“H-hey, wait!” Flustered, the slug girl tried her best to catch up, but Ranma was already a fair distance away and making space, his walking speed easily able to outstrip the much slower slug girl.

“Sorry, kind of in a hurry,” said Ranma over his shoulder, barely even turning his attention away from the traveler's guide. “Weird, all these places have different names than Ilias...”

“You're really just going to leave her back there?”

Ranma didn't even flinch at Alice's sudden appearance, though it still irked him a bit that he couldn't sense it. “Should I have fought her or something? She seemed about as threatening as Lime.”

“Well she probably would have tried to catch you, feed on you, and then press you into marriage,” said Alice casually.

Ranma twitched slightly. “I suppose I could go back and punch her a few times.”

“Forget it. I want some Happiness Honey.”

Closing the guide, Ranma idly spun it on a finger before tossing it back to Alice. “You still haven't said how you're going to pay for it.”

“Well maybe if you'd beaten that Slug Girl, you could have gotten some gold coins from her.”

“You mean like...shake her down?”

“Isn't that what adventurers do?”

“I don't know, I'm not an adventurer. And I'm definitely not a thief.” Well...he usually wasn't a thief. He wasn't a petty thief at least.

“If we don't get any Happiness Honey, it's going to be your fault then,” concluded Alice with a huff.

“Why don't _you_ have any money? I thought you were interested in traveling the world.”

“That was only partially the reason I left Hellgondo,” she began, only to cut off abruptly. Just like before, she'd instantly disappeared.

“Will you stop doing- ” began Ranma, only to pause as he sensed a faint aura beneath the ground. “Really? Right in the middle of the road?” he muttered while carefully stepping around several suspicious looking fronds peeking up from the dirt. Like clockwork, Alice was back by his side a moment later.

“What was that one going to do? Try to feed on me as well?”

“Unlikely. She probably would have just screamed at you for waking her up and then moved somewhere else.”

“If she's trying to sleep, why is she in the middle of a road?”

“Because she's not very bright,” said Alice simply. “At least you had the sense to step around her.”

“I could sense her aura from fifty feet away...unlike yours,” grumbled Ranma. “How are you doing that, anyways?”

“Lots of practice. It would be troublesome if too many monsters saw me on this continent, and it's not as though you need my help dealing with them.”

That made a certain amount of sense. She was clearly a powerful and important monster of some kind, and if there was a conflict between monsters and humans, helping him could put her in a bad spot. Although now he couldn't help but wonder just how important she really was.

“Are you queen of some kind? Or a princess?” he ventured.

“Something like that,” answered Alice, not at all helpfully.

Ranma shrugged and turned back to the road as the two of them crested a hill. At the top, he could see Iliasburg in the distance, stretched out along a cliffside and rising above the forest. Houses were packed in rather snugly with one another, although no building rose higher than the church at the top of the incline, giving it the effect of 'looking over' the rest of the town. Beside him, Alice had already slipped back into her human disguise.

“Wouldn't it be easier to just find a real set of clothes rather than having to manipulate your aura all the time?” asked Ranma.

“Do you think I'd be any less conspicuous with a dress?” retorted Alice pointedly.

Ranma took a moment to look at her. Long silver hair, an intricate flower arrangement entwining with the strands, and bright golden eyes...

“No, probably not,” he agreed with a shake of his head before suddenly coming to a stop. “What in the-” The peaceful afternoon air was now rippling with an immense amount of power, comparable to what he'd first felt from Alice during their conflict. Unlike hers, however, this show of power felt...calculated. Almost as though it were a challenge to anyone who could feel it.

Beside him, Alice had stopped as well, a frown on her face as she looked toward the town. “What is she doing here?” she mumbled, just loud enough for Ranma to hear.

“Who?”

“You'll see. Unless you were planning to run away from this monster too,” said Alice with a small smile.

Ranma hesitated. “Weren't you worried about me beating up monsters just a bit ago?”

“Not this one. And even if you did, it would probably only make things worse for you.”

“Worse how?”

“Looks like she's attacking the town,” said Alice, swiftly changing the subject. “She's probably cut her way through most of the guards by now.”

“What? I thought-”

“Not every monster is after a meal you moron.”

Ranma didn't need any further prompting, leaving Alice in the dust as he ran toward the oppressive aura. No gate guards. Obviously they were dealing with the threat inside. The streets were mostly abandoned as well, with the town feeling eerily silent, save for the increasingly loud clashes of steel that Ranma was rapidly approaching.

The sight that greeted him in the central square around the water fountain was not what he was expecting. As Alice had predicted, the monster had cut her way through multiple guards. Bodies were laid out everywhere with severed weapons, deep gashes in their armor, and dented helmets...but there was no blood. In fact, none of the armored soldiers even seemed to be seriously injured, simply knocked unconscious. That in and of itself spoke to an impressive level of skill.

Finally, Ranma laid eyes on the monster herself. Green scales, strong looking claws, pointed ears and strange looking fins close to her neck...a dragon! He was looking at an actual dragon! The sight was surreal enough to give him pause and watch as she eyed the remaining three soldiers in the plaza with a cool look. 

“How boring. Is there not a single strong person in this entire city?” The dragongirl challenged.

“Guh! We'll never surrender to monsters like you!” Wielding a spear, the first guard charged, closely followed by the second.

“Too slow!” In a flash, the heavy metal blade at her side was in her hands, slashing out with blinding speed. The spear fell away in pieces, and a second later she vanished, appearing at the guard's back and bringing the hilt of her blade down hard against his helmet. The second barely had time to turn around before the dragon's next strike disarmed him and sent his blade skidding across the ground. Her third strike dropped him with a heavy stab to his stomach that dented his armor inward but didn't break the skin beneath. 

The whole engagement had taken less than five seconds.

Finally, only one guard remained. Ranma could plainly feel the fear in his aura as the dragon swordswoman wreathed her blade in fire. “Well? Is this it? Are you going to let your town be taken over by a monster?” she taunted.

“You know, I think you made your point. Do you really need to make him wet his pants, too?” Ranma resisted the urge to react as the dragon girl whirled around and pointed her blade at him.

“You...you managed to hide your presence from me,” she said slowly. “Who are you?”

“Ranma Saotome of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts. Hey, soldier guy,” he called out to the trembling guard behind her. “Beat it. I'm gonna need some room here.”

The guard didn't need to be told twice and the dragon didn't even spare him a glance. “I am Granberia, the swordsman of fire and Heavenly Knight to the Monster Lord. Are you here to defend this town?”

“Nah. I'm just curious why you're wasting your time with a bunch of weaklings,” said Ranma simply, his arms casually resting behind his head.

“Ilias continent is a breeding ground for heroes and adventurers seeking to kill the monster lord,” replied Granberia, sticking her sword into the ground and crossing her arms beneath her chest. “It only makes sense to cut them off at the source.”

Idly, Ranma cast a glance at the numerous bodies laid out around the plaza in various states of injury. Some had regained consciousness and were crawling away from the field of battle, but none of them would be up and fighting again anytime soon. “This is what you're worried about? Really? How long did this take you, a half hour?”

“Half that. Maybe I was a bit impulsive, but it drew you out of hiding, didn't it? You seem like you'll give me a proper challenge.”

“I...guess I can't say you didn't,” said Ranma with a sigh. He'd really walked into that one. Taking a breath, the martial artist slipped into a stance, a fist at his side and a single hand extended forward.

Granberia gave him a curious look as she took the heavy blade at her side into her hands. The thing looked less like a slashing implement and more like a heavy hunk of metal. Crude in design, but no doubt effective. “No weapon?”

“Never needed one before.”

“I see. It's been some time since I've fought a monk. Show me your strength!”

Ranma's form blurred, and suddenly he was inches away from Granberia, his fist landing hard against her armored chest. There was a brief flicker of surprise, a grin, and then Ranma was on the defensive, her sword a gray streak as she retaliated, powerful slashes missing him by inches as he gave ground, then took it back with a quick pivot and a hard strike to her side. Her blade was upon him instantly, slicing straight through his shirt and nicking the skin underneath. Off-balance, her next strike would have cleaved him in two if he hadn't jumped away, landing neatly on the edge of the fountain.

“Yes...this is exactly what I've been waiting for! Again!”

Not wasting a breath, Ranma indulged her, coming in low, only to kick up into the air at the last moment and twist past her adjusted sword strike, his foot sweeping around and striking her shoulder. When her retaliatory blow came, Ranma was ready, kicking off her wrist to keep his momentum in the air and land a second blow to her neck while being carried past her strike. Or at least, that had been the plan before she abandoned the grip on her sword and grabbed his ankle, flinging him away.

Flipping in the air, Ranma landed on the ground just in time to see Granberia bearing down on him. “Chaos Star!” she roared.

“Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken!”

Blurred fists met a blurred blade, the martial artist focusing intently as his flurry of punches nudged, prodded, and just barely moved the sword aside with each strike to avoid having his arms cut to ribbons. Even then, it was near impossible to catch every blow and cuts opened up on his arms, though at the same time, a few punches managed to sneak through, putting nice, solid dents in her armor.

Eventually though, Ranma was forced to retreat, disengaging with a swift kick off the ground and a leap into the air. Putting his hand out, Ranma focused his ki and called out his attack.

“Moko Takabisha!”

A bright ball of energy formed at his fingers and rocketed towards the dragon. There was another brief flicker of surprise as she saw it streaking toward her before her blade flashed out and cut it cleanly down the middle, the energy detonating on either side of her in a cloud of dust.

“Fascinating. I didn't think there were any humans like you left in the world,” said Granberia appreciatively. “But you're still holding back. Show me your true strength!”

Landing some distance away, Ranma took a moment to catch his breath. “How do you figure?”

“You're a monk. Your type always have dozens of special techniques and you never lead with your strongest ones,” she observed. “But if you want me to force them out of you, then fine by me!”

The sound of claws upon stone filled the air as Granberia raised her blade high. A stabbing attack?

“Thunder Thrust!” A mere dozen feet away and Granberia's form vanished. Instinctively, Ranma threw himself to the side just in time for Granberia to reappear, her sword cutting deep into his side. Biting his lip, Ranma forced himself to focus, his body twisting and his arm sweeping around to slam into her side, staggering her for a brief moment and giving him a chance to leap away again.

Granberia didn't pursue, though she kept her sword at the ready as she watched Ranma push ki to the wound to rapidly close it. “Fast, but not fast enough.”

Ranma's eyes narrowed and his body straightened, his arms coming back up into a ready stance. “One more time.”

The dragon smirked and raised her blade again. “Don't blink.”

Ranma didn't. Instead he closed his eyes, focusing entirely on her aura. The wind was picking up again, almost as though she were directing it to enhance the speed of her attack. The noise of her claws hitting the ground increased in speed until they were almost a single unbroken sound. The stab came out, and then her entire aura seemed to slip to the side.

“There!” His palm lashed out, the very point of the sword just barely nicking his finger before he struck the flat of the blade, knocking it aside. His second palm strike hit center of mass, adding another fist-sized dent to Granberia's armor, and the third shattered the plate entirely, exposing her midriff and sending her flying back.

“Moko Takabisha!” Trusting that she was far from finished, Ranma sent a ki blast after her, and he wasn't disappointed as she suddenly righted herself and landed on the ground feet first, her sword sweeping upward to deflect the ki blast.

Instead of cutting it like the last one, the blade seemed to almost 'stick' to the energy he'd thrown before she shifted her grip and slashed downward. Suddenly, his own energy was shooting back towards him in the shape of a crescent, tearing up the ground as it streaked back to him. Thankfully, it wasn't a fast attack, but the power was immense, raising the hairs on Ranma's arm as it passed by him and detonated against the fountain, utterly destroying the structure and sending water everywhere. Amazingly, none of it splashed on him.

Setting her sword aside, Granberia calmly undid some of the straps of her armor and let the damaged part fall away. “A serene state of mind...it's been a while since I've fought another who mastered it.”

“Serene...what?”

“I suppose a monk might have a different name for it,” said Granberia, readying her sword again. “But you're not the only one who can use that form.”

The dragon's stance shifted and the air around her seemed to change. The fire and bloodlust was almost entirely gone and the wind around her died completely, leaving just her swaying form. Then, she struck.

It wasn't as fast as her gale thrust, but the blade still moved at a near blinding speed, not a sliver of energy wasted as she slashed across his chest, opening up a large cut on his shirt and a red line on his skin. His retaliation came quick, but like water, she seemed to flow around it, moving the barest minimum possible before striking again, sections of his shirt falling away as he was only just avoiding the attacks. It was similar to how he'd read her Thunder Thrust, but she was incorporating it into her entire being.

Well...two could play at that game.

Calming himself, Ranma closed his eyes and let his aura expand. Granberia was a bright flame in his mind and her sword was a mere extension of herself. Each movement she made sent a ripple through the stillness around him. When his eyes opened again, everything except Granberia seemed to fade from view...and then they clashed.

To an outside observer, it might have looked like a dance. Each movement perfectly choreographed as fists skimmed against scales and the blade delicately severed a few hairs from Ranma's head. Gouges appeared in the stone ground beneath them with each missed sword-strike, neither one of them managing to land anything more than a glancing blow. The movements were getting faster, too, the dance becoming more deadly by the moment as the two serene fighters moved fully with the flow.

And then, Granberia's sword caught fire.

“Vaporizing Rebellion Sword!”

The call out was more of a warning than a declaration. It still didn't help. Fire fueled her blade and her movements both as she flipped from a serene state to an all-out attack with barely a break in stride. Dozens upon dozens of sword strikes rained down on Ranma, searing his skin even as he dodged and deflected what he could. The final thrust forward came at lightning speed, opening up a wound on his chest and sending him flying back to land on his knees.

“It's been a long time since someone has pushed me this far,” said Granberia calmly. “You have my respect, Ranma Saotome. But this match is mine.”

Ranma coughed and spat up a bit of blood. “You're...not bad yourself,” he got out, slowly rising to his feet. His clothing was in tatters now, and what remained was badly seared. A good deal of his ki was being dedicated to keeping his wounds closed and the pain at bay, but he couldn't surrender. Not when victory was so close.

“I admire your resilience, but if you persist, I will put you down,” warned the dragoness, readying her blade.

“Show me...one more time.”

“Hmm?”

“Your technique. Vaporizing Rebellion Sword. Show me...one more time.”

“If you wish to die that badly-”

“You won't hit me a second time,” Ranma lied through his teeth. Already the world around him was fading into that serene state once more. This was going to take all of his concentration.

“I see. Very well then.” Her sword ignited, the heat causing sweat to drip down Ranma's brow. “Vaporizing Rebellion Sword!”

The attack came, and Ranma moved. Searing blow after searing blow swept past him, cutting into his skin and burning his flesh, but Ranma continued to retreat, leading Granberia in a very particular pattern even as his legs threatened to give out. She wasn't angry, but Ranma had all the heat he needed, and as he came closer and closer to the center of the technique, his mind slipped further and further into the soul of ice.

Then, as the final stab came, Ranma's fist met it.

“Hiryu Shoten Ha!”

His shout was practically lost to the sudden raging winds that formed from his fist, the hot and cold energies clashing and sweeping Granberia off her feet and into the air. Gale force winds battered her from every side as she struggled to hold on to her blade, but Ranma wasn't going to give her a chance to recover. Leaping into the tornado, Ranma rode the air currents straight to her, slamming into her back with a shoulder before unleashing a barrage of punches, kicks, and a finishing heel drop right to her stomach.

With a resounding crash, Granberia hit the ground below, her blade landing several feet away. Ranma's landing was only a bit more graceful, his entire body trembling as his feet hit the ground and promptly gave out, forcing him to one knee.

Slowly, Ranma reached a hand over to the dragon's head and lightly tapped the front of her helm with his knuckle. “I win.”

Confident that his opponent was unconscious, Ranma let himself fall back onto his rear, breathing a sigh of relief. The area around them was completely destroyed. Deep gouges lined the stone ground and the fountain was spilling water everywhere. The dozens of guards that Granberia had laid out were mercifully unharmed, and it looked like a good majority of them had either managed to crawl away on their own, or had been dragged to safety. Internally, he berated himself for forgetting their presence in the heat of the moment. It was a small miracle that none of the collateral damage had hit one of them.

“Now this...this feels like home,” said Ranma with a chuckle, closing his eyes and relaxing. Already he could sense the people who had barricaded themselves in their homes cautiously peeking out now that the noise had ceased.

“One more...” Ranma nearly yelped as a warm, scaly hand grabbed onto his wrist. A pair of determined golden eyes looked up at him as the dragon woman kept a death grip on his wrist and pulled herself up next to him. “Show me...that technique one more time.”

For a moment, Ranma was ready to strike out, but her sword was still several dozen feet away and she seemed far more interested in the technique than continuing the fight. “It's...a little complicated,” he began.

“You were leading me in a spiral. Right at the center, you did something with your energy that turned my flames against me.”

_One demonstration was all it took..._

“Are you idiots done yet?”

“Gah! Will you stop doing that?” snapped Ranma, turning behind him where Alice had suddenly appeared.

Granberia's head also turned and her eyes widened. “My lord!” Shaking from her injuries, the dragon woman still managed to shift her body and bring herself to one knee, bowing her head to Alice.

“What are you doing here, Granberia?” asked Alice, the annoyance clear in her voice. “Was there something unclear about my edict?”

“No, of course not! But...when you left to fight her-” she began.

“Idiot. How was this supposed to help me?”

“This is her bastion of support. All of the heroes come from here. I thought that if I-”

“Go away, you annoyance. I came here to try some Happiness Honey and I can't do that if the town is destroyed.”

Granberia hesitated for a moment, looking between Ranma and Alice before her expression shifted into one of determination. “I'm sorry, my lord, but I can't do that. This human is a threat to you.”

Ranma coughed. “What? How?”

“Your abilities. They're strange and powerful. They could pose a significant risk to my lord.”

“I'm already keeping an eye on him,” interrupted Alice. “And I've fought with him already. There is no significant threat to myself.”

“Hey! Come on now- ”

“Nevertheless, I must insist, Lord Alipheese. I can't back down now.”

“You just want a rematch.”

Granberia's eyes darted to the side. Was that a tinge of red on her cheeks?

“Perhaps...I could accompany you?” She offered. “I realize you are entirely capable of protecting yourself, my lord, but there are many threats in the world, and I feel as though Ranma hasn't shown you everything he's capable of.”

Alice sighed, crossing her arms beneath her breasts as she looked at her subordinate. “It irritates me that you're making a compelling case even while lying through your teeth. Still, I wasn't aware this idiot could form tornadoes with his bare hands.”

“That's not exactly how the technique works,” Ranma protested.

“Fine, you can travel with us,” said Alice. “Just so long as you put your duties as a knight first and your crazy battle tendencies second.”

“My lord, I would never-”

“And get out of town. I'm never going to get any Happiness Honey if everyone is too afraid to leave their houses.”

“Of course, Lord Alipheese. I will meet you outside the city when you're ready to leave,” said Granberia, finally managing to get to her feet and make her way toward the gate.

Alice watched her go with a frown on her face. “Unbelievable. I told you that beating her was only going to make things more troublesome.”

Struggling to his feet, Ranma silently agreed. Surprisingly, his ascent was helped by a hand on his arm and a gentle pull, the disguised monster easily holding him steady. “I didn't really have a lot of options,” he groaned.

“You could have not fought her. You're not even from this world. Why should you care what happens to a town like this?” asked Alice. Despite the coldness of her words, Ranma didn't feel as though she were judging him, but rather genuinely curious of his reasoning.

“Maybe I shouldn't,” he agreed. “But I'm not that type of person. I see something like this happen in front of me and I can't just do nothing.”

Alice was silent for a long moment before shaking her head. For a brief instant, Ranma could have sworn he'd seen a smile on her face. “Are you sure you're not one of Ilias' brain-dead heroes? Because that's the kind of line one would use.”

“Is she gone?”

“She's gone! Those two drove her away!”

“Did you see that tornado? That was amazing!”

“I could barely see either of them move!”

People were starting to spill out into the streets now. Some were checking on the unconscious soldiers but a good deal of them were crowding around him and Alice, eager to get a look at the 'heroes' that had driven off Granberia.

“He didn't even use a weapon!”

“What's your name, hero?”

“You idiots, give the hero some space. Can't you see how beat up he is?”

“Three cheers for the hero of Iliasburg!”

Despite the enthusiastic crowd around them, Alice's pace continued forward, parting them easily as she held Ranma by the arm. “Come on, 'hero', we're clearly done traveling for the day.”

“We still don't have any money, you know...”

“But you're a hero now,” said Alice sweetly. “And you nearly got run through and burned to a crisp for your trouble, so maybe just be quiet and enjoy the benefits.”

\----------

Ranma couldn't remember a time when he'd spent a night in a luxurious location such as this. The training trip had been a series of forests, caves, and abandoned houses. The Tendo Dojo was comfortable, but not fancy. This, however, was luxury with a capital L.

Everything about the room spoke of money and wealth. Large, human sized portraits of heroes and monsters doing battle lined the walls, coupled with thick red curtains that opened on incredible views of the town below.

The furniture pieces in the room were no less spectacular. Calling the large bed in the room 'King' sized didn't do it justice. It could have easily fitted Alice's entire snake body and then some, even if she was stretched out all the way, and pillows of all shapes and sizes were nestled at the head of the bed like a miniature fort.

At the moment, both he and Alice were seated at the dining table, making quick work of the feast that the inn owner had delivered to them within minutes of showing them to the room. Ranma's clothes had been taken, and in their place was a large, white fluffy bathrobe that was warm enough to fall asleep in.

“Just for the record, this still feels wrong,” said Ranma in between bites.

On the other end, Alice was matching him bite for bite, showing an appetite not unlike his own. “You'd sound more convincing if your mouth wasn't full.”

“It's not in my nature to pass up a free meal.” And he definitely wasn't about to let food this good go to waste.

“Then stop complaining, hero boy,” concluded Alice smugly, finishing off another set of honey topped Ama-Ama Dango and adding another plate to the small mountain that had accumulated between the two of them. “Besides, I'm sure the Ilias Church wouldn't mind treating you after you drove off Granberia.”

“Something tells me they wouldn't be quite so happy to be treating a monster,” countered Ranma. “Speaking of...Granberia called you a lord. What exactly are you a lord of anyways?”

“Hellgondo,” said Alice simply.

Ranma thought back to the map again and his chewing slowed. “Isn’t that the name of the continent?”

“Yes.” Without missing a beat, Alice's lamia form wavered and shifted into her human one right as the door opened, admitting the inn hostess with a cart to clean off the numerous empty plates and dishes.

“Well now, I was going to ask if you were enjoying my cooking, but the cleaned plates speak for themselves,” said the owner jovially.

“A perfect blend of sweetness and natural tastes. The honey is expertly applied to not overpower the other flavors. Truly a masterwork of cooking. If you were a monster, I'd make you a duchess.”

“Haha..what a strange remark young lady!”

Ranma fought the urge to rub his head and sigh. Fortunately, the owner seemed to think it was just a joke of some kind.

“Unfortunately, we haven't been able to get enough Happiness Honey lately. Something has been happening at Happiness Village and the men have been disappearing. Although I suppose a skilled pair of heroes would be able to sort out a problem like that easily.”

“Um...” began Ranma.

“It would certainly be worth letting you stay here for another night or two. It might even be worth a permanent discount and VIP treatment.”

“We’ll look into it,” said Alice instantly.

“What?”

“This inn is clearly the lifeblood of the city,” said Alice, matter-of-fact. “You wouldn't want her to go out of business now, would you?”

Ranma stared at her before slowly looking around at the absurdly luxurious room. “You know...I don't really think the lack of one ingredient is going to be that bad.”

“Well, you're a hero type, aren't you? Isn't this the kind of thing you're supposed to do?” pressed Alice.

From the corner of his eye, Ranma could see the hostess looking at him expectantly. Inwardly he cursed. “Yes...that is exactly the kind of thing we as heroes would do.”

“Wonderful! It warms my heart to see that Ilias can still provide us heroes worth a damn in these troubled and uncertain times. You two have a good night now, and be sure to ring the bell if there's anything you need.”

Ranma waited until her footsteps were completely out of earshot before glaring at Alice who had already returned to her monster form. “Will you knock it off with the hero thing? You already exploited a couple hundred thousand gold from this inn.”

“I didn't hear you complaining when she offered us the hero rate,” retorted Alice. “Are you saying that you don't want to help that poor village under siege by vicious monsters? If you're feeling so guilty about staying here for free, then maybe you should help her out.”

“Why do you care about what's going on in a human village anyways? I thought everyone on this continent was an Ilias worshiper in your eyes,” accused Ranma. “It can't just be because you want more Happiness Honey.”

Alice was silent for a long moment. “...it’s really good honey.”

Ranma groaned. “Damn glutton.”

“The term is gourmet,” she retorted. “Besides, you ate just as much as I did. Maybe even more.”

Looking down at the numerous empty plates that hadn't fit on the cart the owner had brought in, Ranma mumbled under his breath. “...it _is_ good honey.”

“It's not as though Grangold is going anywhere. Besides, the royalty there will probably be far more open to talking with an accomplished hero than some nobody claiming they're from another world.”

That...was actually a pretty good point. If that sort of technology and magic did exist in this world, it was probably a closely guarded secret. “Alright, fine, we'll go. Now can you tell me why you really want to go?”

Alice shrugged and cleaned off the final plate of food. “Monster lord business.”

“That's all you're gonna tell me?”

“Why should you care what's going on with a bunch of monsters? Every one you've met has attacked you so far.”

“Most humans do that to me,” retorted Ranma. “But if you don't want to tell me, fine.”

“I would be more than happy to bore you with the politics of monsters and humans, but I'm hungry right now. For dessert.”

“Bell is right next to you,” said Ranma.

The martial artist was halfway to his feet before he caught Alice's playful, yet predatory look, a sudden chill going down his spine. “No, absolutely not,” he said quickly.

“Really? Weren't you curious about that technique the slime girl used on you? I'm quite good at it myself,” said Alice, idly flicking her fingers toward the door to the room, a faint black aura appearing around the handle and the cracks in the door.

“I'm not that curious, and I'm still injured.” That was a partial truth. A shower and a big meal had done wonders to help his energy recover and his body to heal. His eyes flicked to the barrier around the door. Could he break through it in time? Maybe he could jump out one of the windows or go through a wall...

“This is going to happen one of two ways, Ranma,” said Alice, her tongue slowly sliding across her lips while her tail quivered behind her. “Either you follow me to the bed and we have a nice time, or you try to run, and I drag you back to the bed for a nice time.”

The chill going down his spine suddenly turned to a shiver. He'd felt something similar at times back in Nerima when Shampoo was feeling particularly aggressive, but never something as intense as this. Worse yet, he couldn't even describe the feeling as 'unpleasant'.

The bathrobe was off in a second, the white fluffy missile streaking toward Alice, billowing outward and blocking her view as a boxer clad Ranma made his bid for freedom, aiming toward the window, angling his shoulder forward and preparing to smash the glass, only for his body to suddenly be rebuffed by that strange dark energy and send him stumbling back.

Around him, similar energy was seeping out from the walls, the floor, and even the ceiling. Alice hadn't even moved from her spot at the table and was calmly folding up the robe Ranma had thrown at her. “You're not going to escape that easily. Consider this practice, just in case a different monster tries something similar on you.”

Ranma bolted and Alice moved, her coils pushing her from the table at an incredibly quick pace. Her coils moved independently of her upper body, pushing off the ground at odd angles, letting her move side to side, and even quite rapidly backwards as she slowly boxed the martial artist in. Eventually, she had him cornered, forcing him to make a desperate leap above her head...or at least try to.

Mentally, he blamed it on the injuries he'd taken from his fight with Granberia and the fact that he was feeling so relaxed after a large meal. Ultimately, he still ended up caught in Alice's arms, locked against her chest, and looking into her eyes which were glowing and coaxing him into a relaxed state. He was already starting to fight back against it, but even the brief moment of paralysis was enough for Alice to employ her coils.

Warm, scaly lengths closed around him, starting with his upper body, pinning his arms to his sides first and quickly moving onto his legs. His struggles were short lived, as the dark energy followed the tight squeeze of her coils, coaxing him to relax and go limp. Then, just as she'd promised, Alice's body began to move, slowly pulling him over to the bed.

“No slime girl to steal part of my meal this time,” she murmured into his ear while stretching herself across the bed, pulling Ranma with her and slowly shifting her coils so that his back was pressed against her stomach and his head was resting on her chest.

Alice's aura was overwhelming. He'd felt it before with Lime, but she was a candle compared to Alice's inferno, and the effect only seemed to be even more potent now that he was bound in her coils. More and more, it was becoming impossible not to focus on how nice her scales felt against his skin as they twisted and squeezed his limbs, or the way they seemed to massage him as he lay trapped, pulling him further into a lethargic state.

Despite how hungry she'd claimed to be, Alice seemed more than content to tease him as his struggles died down. Those smooth, latex gloves traced over his bare chest in random patterns while her warm breath passed over his ear with each word she spoke. A gap in her coils had left his boxers exposed, and the tip of her tail was already starting to slide toward the 'opening'.

“Most monsters aren't going to be merciful enough to use a sword,” murmured Alice into his ear, her tongue just barely flicking across his skin. “They'll go right for this weak point of yours, and if you aren't prepared, you'll be helpless.”

“I can protect this part just fine!” sputtered Ranma, making a herculean effort to break free, only to fall still as she tightened around him and traced the tip of her tail along his single remaining piece of clothing.

“Keep working on it,” teased Alice, this time fully licking his ear, exploiting yet another sensitive spot Ranma hadn't known existed on his body. “In the meantime, I'll take my meal and give you a bit of training. A win for both of us, wouldn't you agree?”

“No!”

“Well then you'd better learn how to counter my technique sooner rather than later,” murmured Alice, giving Ranma's cheek a playful kiss before her tail struck.

Slow, sensual, and deliberate, the very tip of Alice's tail slid beneath his boxers and forced his manhood into the open air, gradually coiling around it until only the tip was visible. Her teasing from before had already ensured that he had come out at full mast, and Alice was quick to exploit it, applying just enough pressure with her squeeze to coax a moan from Ranma's lips.

“No more protests? Have you satisfied your morals by resisting as much as you could before giving in?” teased Alice, flexing the tip of her tail along with the larger coils of her body to give Ranma a full body squeeze, another moan spilling from his lips at the sensation.

“Just...just take your meal,” panted Ranma, his cheeks bright red as he was forced to watch the tail at work, the very tip of which was now brushing and teasing along the head of his shaft, tracing slow, sensual circles around his glans.

“Oh I will, but a good meal like this should be savored,” replied Alice, her tongue flicking out along his ear as she spoke. Squeeze...release. Squeeze...release. Each cycle drew out a shaky moan from his lips. Her latex fingers were tracing along his chest as her tail tormented him, the smooth, almost slick material of her gloves a sharp contrast to the finely textured scales wrapped around him.

Ranma's eyes closed and his fists clenched as he tried to think about anything else. Would that serene state help? No...Alice's coils and her soft human body pressing against his back was too prevalent in his mind. The soul of ice? That fared a bit better, right up until Alice's fingers found his bare nipples and gave them a sharp pinch, jolting him back to reality with a gasp.

“Your technique is adorable, but I'm going to feed, and I don't want to wait.” Yet Alice continued to take her time, squeezing her main body of coils at particular intervals around his arms and legs, massaging and caressing his skin while the tip of her tail sought out new weaknesses along his length.

As it turned out, those weaknesses were plentiful, and Alice was finding and exploiting them one after another, traveling from the head of his length all the way to his balls, the speed of her teasing combining with a gradual increase in the strength of her squeezing to really make him squirm and gasp.

Slowly, the coils began to still, until only the very tip of her tail was caressing him. Tracing a slow line upward from his chest, Alice's hand began to move toward his face until her fingers were at his lips and then pressed against his mouth. “Just so you don't let the entire inn know what we're doing in here,” murmured Alice, tracing her forked tongue across his neck.

Her tail struck again. Every weak point she had found in her exploration was now being exploited, the scales a perfect contrast to his skin to drive the pleasant sensations home. Just like she had predicted, his cries came out at a rapid pace, his body bucking instinctively toward the tip of the tail. Alice's giggles filled the room, her coils tightening as he squirmed and struggled, her gloved hand absorbing more and more of his cries until finally, Ranma came, a half dozen spurts of his seed shooting out and coating her scales.

Her hand came free from his mouth right at the peak, his cries filling the room as she flexed her coils and milked him for all he was worth, extending his climax a good several seconds until her tail tip was more white than red. Just like the last time with Lime, Ranma could feel that strange energy pushing in as he hit his peak, further weakening his body, though it wasn't much more pronounced than the effect her coils had already inflicted.

Panting for breath, Ranma could only watch as those red scales briefly glistened with his seed before it was absorbed, the fluids seeming to seep straight through the tail to who knew where, yet at the same time she must have fed from it, as her aura became more powerful immediately after.

“Mmhh...it's so much more tasty when it isn't being mixed with slime,” said Alice, letting out a happy sigh. “But I'm not satisfied yet, and you're still full of energy.”

Ranma gulped, already feeling that tail tighten once again. His body was clearly eager, as his lively manhood could attest to. “Alice, I- ”

**CRASH!**

If Ranma had the energy and the freedom, he would have jumped as Granberia's scaly foot slammed through the door and shattered the dark-energy barrier surrounding it. “Lord Alice, are you okay? I felt a powerful expenditure of energy and...” Her words trailed off and her sword lowered slightly as she saw the position she and Ranma were in.

Alice didn't even seem phased by her entrance. “Thank you for your timely response, Granberia. Ranma was a bit confident after his fight with you and thought to try and take me on as well.”

“Wait, what? No I did- mmphh!”

“Hmph. I knew he was going to be trouble,” said the dragon as she sheathed her sword.

Ranma's eyes widened and his head shook from side to side in protest, but Alice's hand was secure over his mouth, keeping him from saying anything more than a string of muffled words while Alice talked over him.

“Troublesome, but I know he can be trained into a proper subordinate. In fact, perhaps you'd like to help?”

Ranma's eyes couldn't have gotten any wider if he'd tried. She wasn't seriously going to buy into what Alice was saying, was she?

“As my lord wishes,” said Granberia without a moment of hesitation, setting her sword aside before climbing onto the massive bed. Alice's coils were already at work, her tail unwinding from his manhood and then wrapping tight around his legs, forcing them to spread as the dragon knelt between. The wounds he'd inflicted from before had all but disappeared, but there was still plenty of evidence from their fight in the form of her damaged armor.

“You are a worthy opponent, Ranma, but challenging the monster lord is a step too far.” Ignoring Ranma's increasingly frantic cries, Granberia's clawed, scaly hand pressed against his thigh, slowly dragging upward towards his groin. “Be grateful that she only seeks to educate you rather than end your existence outright.”

Lacking even a fraction of Alice's dexterity, playfulness, or skill, Granberia's hand wrapped tight around his manhood and began to squeeze. Her scales were far more rough and coarse, and her grip was strong, bringing with it an intense warmth that traveled far beyond her touch.

None of the contrast made it any less unpleasant than Alice's tail, though. The forceful, direct, and intensely straightforward way in which Granberia moved her hand and squeezed him against her surprisingly softer palm had him gasping and squirming in Alice's coils just as much as before. Perhaps even more embarrassing was how Granberia seemed to be treating it as a simple task she needed to carry out, her expression stoic even as she made Ranma writhe beneath her.

“Clearly if you had this much energy left after our fight, you were holding something back. No matter, it simply means I have to punish you further.” Her other hand joined the first, wrapping tight around his balls as her stroking increased to a fever pitch. The grip was just tight enough to feel oppressive and encompassing without feeling painful. Despite her apparent disinterest in the task she was performing, she was still quite focused and exhibiting impressive control, pushing the captive martial artist to his limit with each squeeze.

And all of that might have been manageable if Alice had been still. Unfortunately, it hadn't taken her long to start teasing him again, resuming that sinfully pleasant massage with her coils around his limbs, and stroking his bare chest with her gloves. Her tongue was sliding over his cheek, focusing on sensitive spots along his neck and ear, all the while keeping her hand firmly in place over his mouth to put a stop to any protests.

Although, as Granberia's hands began to work aggressively over his shaft and sack, Ranma wasn't sure if he could have found the words even if he wasn't being silenced. It might have even been a small mercy at this point, as nothing but embarrassing cries and humiliating moans were leaving his lips, his manhood twitching wildly as he was pushed closer to his peak.

Inevitably, his body gave out. He wasn't sure if Alice or Granberia had been faster, but the end result was the same, his seed spilling out from the tip and covering the dragon's scales, a few spurts even reaching up to her arm as she stroked him to his finish. Defeated, Ranma slumped into Alice's coils, barely even noticing as her hand slipped free from his mouth.

Slowly, Granberia's fingers relaxed. “Perhaps it's letting you off easy for attacking my lord, but I believe this lesson has been sufficient.”

“Almost,” corrected Alice with a small smile. “Make sure he learns it. He's still aroused and he's still conscious. Now lick up your meal and do the monster lord's bidding.”

Granberia nodded, doing just that as she licked her fingers clean. “As my lord wishes,” she replied, wasting no time in returning her hot, scaly hands to his groin, a strangled cry leaving Ranma as she brought him back to hardness in record time.

\----------

“You're trying to get me killed,” accused Ranma. “First Lime and now Granberia.”

“Hardly. Lime was an experiment. Granberia was a reward.”

“How was that a reward?!”

“More a reward for her than for you,” admitted Alice.

“What?! But she-nhhh!” Ranma's cry was cut off as the inert coils draped over his body suddenly tightened, stilling his squirming and forcing him to relax. He wasn't sure how much time had passed since Granberia and Alice had made him faint, but he'd awoken still bound in Alice's coils, her chest against his back and her chin on top of his head.

“She needed that. If dragon monsters like her don't feed, they tend to do stupid things. Like go out and attack innocent towns and bully opponents far weaker than them.”

Ranma grumbled under his breath but soon fell silent. It was difficult to hold on to his anger when his body was feeling so relaxed and lethargic, and even when she wasn't doing something perverted, just being wrapped up in Alice's coils was soothing, making it hard not to drift off again.

“What exactly was stopping her from feeding before?”

“Pride. It's a common trait in dragons. But at least now she has a target to focus on.”

Ranma groaned. “You're joking.”

“I told you it was going to be troublesome if you beat her,” reminded Alice.

“I don't suppose you could-”

“Nope.

“I didn't even-”

“You don't have to. You chose to fight her, you deal with the consequences. I'm not going to step into the middle of that.” Alice's coils shifted, her head coming into view, her golden eyes seeming to glow in the dim light of the room. “Unless you actually want to become my subordinate. Then I could protect you from the big, bad dragon.”

“No thanks, you're already pushing me toward death without ordering me around.”

“Suit yourself then,” said Alice, relaxing once more against his back and securing her coils around his body.

“...you're not going back to your own room, are you?”

“Nope. Although if you're having trouble relaxing...”

“No, it's fine!” said Ranma quickly.

“Good.”

Even with his back turned, the martial artist could feel her smile as her coils settled around him, bringing an unfamiliar but not entirely unwelcome warmth and comfort that was already starting to help ease him back to sleep. Despite his better judgment telling him what a bad idea this was, Ranma couldn't help but feel relaxed, and soon he was asleep in the monster's embrace.


	3. Side Quests

“Sounded like you two had fun last night.”

Ranma nearly choked on his food. “You heard that?”

“Not a peep! But I have a pretty good instinct about these sorts of things.” said the innkeeper with a wink.

Alice didn't even seem fazed by the owner's teasing, merely taking another pastry and devouring it. “It was a hundred-thousand gold bed. It would have been a shame not to use it.”

“Can we talk about something else? Like...anything else?”

“So are you two a couple?” asked the owner, speaking to Alice and completely ignoring Ranma's plea.

“More like casual partners at the moment,” said Alice calmly.

The owner smiled. “Might want to snatch him up quick. You never know when a monster might try to steal him away from you.”

Alice's mouth quirked upward. “I pity the poor monster that would try to catch him.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” snapped Ranma.

“It means you'd be more trouble for a monster than you're worth to catch, provided you don't throw a tornado at them,” said Alice sweetly.

“I told you my technique doesn't work...you know what? Forget it. We've got to get going to that Happiness place,” grumbled Ranma as he took to his feet.

“Sit down and finish your meal, dear,” said Alice, her voice dripping with false affection. “It's the least you can do after she went to all the trouble of making it and giving you a new set of clothes.”

Ranma paused, halfway up from his seat, looking at his half-finished meal before slumping back down with a sigh. “Should have just let Granberia take this town...”

“Hmm? What was that?” asked the owner.

“Nothing!” said Ranma quickly, stuffing his mouth full to make sure his foot couldn't fit into it again. He had to admit, the new clothes were a step up from the ones Granberia had torched. While he wasn't enthusiastic about the mixture of green and blue colors, the shirt had a weight to it that reminded him of his old karate gi, and the heavier, more durable pants were far more suited for traveling.

“I'll tell you, it's a real blessing from Ilias that you two showed up. That dragon woman has just been the latest in a series of ongoing problems. Magical storms cutting off Iliasport, kidnappings in Happiness Village, and just a couple weeks ago, a fearsome group of bandits led by a vampire and a dragon moved in and have been terrorizing the local merchants.”

“Two dragons within a week?” asked Alice with a raised brow.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” said the owner with a sigh. “I don't know why any monster would bother with this town to begin with. At one time we might have had heroes worth challenging, but...well, you saw how well they stood up to that dragon woman. By the way, I noticed there was a claw mark on the door to your room this morning. You didn't have any visitors last night, did you?”

Ranma nearly choked on his food. “Ah...no, no visitors whatsoever,” he assured her. “Don't know where it could have possibly come from.”

“Strange. Oh well, just another bill I can send to the temple,” said the owner cheerfully before picking up the dishes and wheeling the cart out of the room.

“So is shame just not a thing with monsters, or something?” asked Ranma the moment the door had closed.

“Not with me. Besides, you were the one who fell for her verbal trap,” countered Alice.

Ranma winced. She was right about that, and frankly she'd handled the conversation better than he could have.

“So what is sex like in your world?” asked Alice suddenly.

“Will you stop-”

“I'm serious,” said Alice pointedly. “How am I supposed to respect your cultural differences if I don't know anything about your culture?”

That brought him up short. Her question and reasoning actually sounded, well, reasonable. Unfortunately, he didn't really have a good answer for that. “Well...it's usually just one other person, and most times you're expected to wait until you're married, I guess.”

“Considering your claim about a lack of monsters, I can't help but wonder if Ilias managed to wipe us out in your world and enforce her edicts unopposed. It sounds exactly like her teachings here,” scoffed Alice. “Let me guess, those 'standards' have a basis in some form of religion, right?”

“That's not...untrue,” said Ranma slowly. Granted, he'd never really committed to any single religion, but those rules did seem to be fairly constant across most of the major ones. “I never really thought about it before.”

“You just blindly followed those standards without ever questioning why?” pressed Alice.

“No. I was engaged to two different girls, was hunted by another, and the less I say about the fourth, the better,” said Ranma shortly.

“Four admirers and you never once had sex?” asked Alice with mild surprise.

“If I had, the other three would have gone berserk,” mumbled Ranma. “And then there were all their rivals to consider. It was just a mess and having...that kind of relationship with any of them was a bad idea.”

“Interesting,” murmured Alice, looking thoughtful as she continued gazing at Ranma from across the table. “Well, if you want some advice from a monster lord, get over your shame quick. Monsters use sex as a weapon all the time, and if you're too embarrassed to fight back properly, you'll end up as prey sooner or later.”

Ranma poked at his food, staying silent. Despite how absurd it sounded, Alice seemed quite serious. “I can't just turn that off, you know.”

“Are you saying you need more training?”

There was no good answer to that, so instead Ranma focused on his food, making a tactical verbal retreat. Mercifully, Alice seemed to be satisfied with her victory and let him finish the meal in peace. Yet her question was going to linger for some time in the back of his mind.

\----------

“Greetings, hero! It is truly an honor to have your presence in my shop!”

Slowly, Ranma looked up from the camping gear he'd been looking over and up into the eyes of a portly, broad bellied shop owner. “It is?”

“Well of course! You were the one who drove off Granberia yesterday! And I've heard a rumor around town that you'll be helping us with our bandit problem, too.”

“First I'm hearing of that,” said Ranma, but the shop owner was already talking ahead of him.

“They're a savage and bloodthirsty lot I tell you. Led by a dragon and a vampire of all things. Why, just a couple of days ago I had ten whole knives go missing from my stock.”

“That's...terrible?”

“And just last week, they raided farmer Stanley's apple tree and devoured over half of the fruits on it!”

“That doesn't actually sound all that bad-”

“And before that, they ambushed a wealthy merchant caravan and stole everything from it!”

“Everything?”

“Mostly some food and a few valuables, but if they hadn't turned tail and run, who knows what that group would have done to them!”

“They survived? I thought you said they were bloodthirsty.”

“Well of course they are! The merchants were lucky to escape with their lives!”

Ranma's eyes narrowed suspiciously. “How many people have these bandits killed exactly?”

The shopkeeper hesitated for a moment, seeming to give the question some serious thought. “Well...no one that I know personally, but their reputation-”

“How many bandits are there?”

“Erm, well we know the dragon and the vampire exist for sure. Those are plenty threatening on their own!”

“Are they?” asked Ranma, clearly suspicious now. “What do they look like?”

“Oh, well the dragon is a fearsome monster with scales as tough as diamonds and a terrifying roar that paralyzes all but the bravest who hear it. And the vampire is a seductive beauty of the night who wears an intimidating black cloak and can drain you of your blood just like that!” For emphasis, the shopkeeper snapped his fingers.

“And they're stealing knives and apples?” reminded Ranma.

“And food!”

Ranma sighed. “I feel like you're making this out to be a bigger problem than it really is.”

“You mean...you're not going to help?” The store owner looked crestfallen. “But you're a hero, aren't you?”

“Actually...” he began.

“Because a hero would get the special store discount on camping supplies. And they'd receive generous donations from the stores they come to, especially in service of the towns they're trying to protect.”

The martial artist cast another glance at the pack, sleeping roll, and tent, along with a plethora of other supplies that were going to be absolutely essential for a long journey into the wilderness. “How much of a discount are you talking about?”

A few minutes later, Ranma had rejoined Alice outside of the shop, a brand new pack on his back laden with several essentials. “We're taking a detour to the Irina Mountains.”

Alice gave him a flat look. “That sounds like a pointless diversion.”

“It is,” agreed Ranma. “But we still don't have any money and I don't like sleeping in trees.”

“Your loss. It's quite comfortable,” said Alice with a shrug as she fell into step beside him. “So what's in the Irina Mountains?”

“Those bandits, apparently. A dragon and a vampire.”

“Like hell there are,” said Alice with a snort. “If there were monsters that powerful on this continent, I would have known about them ages ago.”

“What, is there no such thing as a weak dragon or vampire?”

“Sheer force of genetics make that almost an impossibility. They don't always get to the level of Granberia, but one would have to seriously try to end up a weakling.”

“I dunno, something isn't adding up here,” said Ranma, pausing in front of a very distinctly marked weapon store before adjusting course and going inside.

“Ah, the hero of Iliasburg! Welcome to my humble weapon shop! How can I-”

“The bandits,” interrupted Ranma. “What can you tell me about them?”

“Haha! Already seeking out your next heroic feat I see! Well, they're a vicious lot for sure. Just a couple of weeks ago, they stole two whole barrels full of fresh vegetables and dried meat! They even have a dragon and a vampire among their ranks.”

“That's it? Two barrels of food?” asked Alice with a slight tilt of her head.

“Well...they were really heavy barrels,” said the owner sheepishly. “If you're going after them, perhaps I can give you some weapons or armor. How about this spiked codpiece? Any monster would think twice about-”

Ranma didn't let him finish before he closed the door and continued to the town gate. “The shop owners seem pretty certain of the dragon and vampire.”

“It could just be a monster pretending,” said Alice. “A little bit of illusion magic or a fancy disguise. Humans tend to be pretty clueless when it comes to monsters.”

“I for one wouldn't mind investigating the rumors,” said a new voice, nearly causing Ranma to jump. Making an effort not to whip his head around toward the voice, he spied Granberia from the corner of his eye, walking along behind him as though she'd been doing so all along. “News of another dragon this far south intrigues me.”

“How long were you listening in?” asked Ranma once he was calm.

“I keep an eye on my lord at all times,” reminded Granberia. “It's not difficult to hide one's presence among untrained humans. After last night it became clear to me-”

“So what about the vampire? Any interest in fighting her?” cut in Ranma.

“Mildly. Vampires tend to rely on charm, trickery, and magic above fighting prowess. Less a challenge of skill than it is avoiding their tricks and finding an opening to exploit,” she explained. “Most don't even like to dirty their hands. Still, it's a bit strange. Dragons and vampires don't really have a history of working together.”

“Why not? Their styles seem complimentary,” observed Ranma. “One fighting directly, one using tricks.”

“Does she look like the type who would use tricks?” asked Alice. “Or be satisfied by a fight that ended with trickery?”

“No, probably not,” agreed Ranma.

“Speaking of tricks, Ranma can change into a girl.”

Granberia paused mid step. “He...what?”

“Alice, why-”

“Did you want to wait for it to happen on accident and cause a misunderstanding? As amusing as that would be, we're already wasting enough time with this pointless side quest.” Snapping her fingers, Alice formed an ice crystal in one of her hands and in the other, a spout of flame appeared. Briefly, the two combined, and with a flick of her wrist, the water splashed over him.

Granberia watched it happen, her eyes widening slightly as she saw the transformation happen within the blink of an eye. Ranma was already ready with the answers to her questions. “Yes, it's a full transformation. No, nothing about me changes mentally. Cold water changes me to this, warm water changes me back.”

“Fascinating. That's not usually an ability a human can achieve, and yet I can sense no magic from you whatsoever, even while the change is happening,” said Granberia thoughtfully.

“Doesn't even feel all that unique anymore, considering what else I've seen here,” said Ranma, shaking the water from her hair before gesturing towards Alice.

“If you had even an ounce of dark magic within your body, it would be easy to teach you a basic level transformation spell like my own,” said Alice as she conjured another ice crystal above her fingers. This time, she brought the sphere of water to a boil with her flame before tossing it in the redhead's direction. “But you're entirely human in both forms.”

“Yeah, it's real tough, but I'll survive somehow,” said Ranma with a roll of his eyes, reaching down to take off his shirt and squeeze out the water, only to find that it wasn't nearly as soaked as he thought it would be. “Huh...well that's neat.”

“Enrikan clothing,” said Granberia. “Light, durable, perfect for those that need to stay nimble during combat. A good choice for a monk like yourself. I'm curious, which form do you prefer to fight in?”

That briefly caught Ranma off guard. Usually the follow up question he got asked after the curse was demonstrated was about his sexual orientation. “Male. Don't move quite as fast and my energy manipulation is a little worse, but it's hard to beat the better reach and strength. I've only had the other body for about four years.”

“So how did you get that body in the first place?” asked Alice.

“It's a long story, and not all that interesting.”

“We've got a ways to walk,” she replied. “The least you could do is entertain us.”

“Fine, whatever. It was all thanks to this stupid mystical training ground in a remote, backwater region of China called Jusenkyo.”

\----------

“Oh, so that's how it is,” said Alice suddenly, bringing the small group to a halt. “This really was a waste of time.”

“You've been saying that for the past two hours,” reminded Ranma. “What exactly is different about this time?”

“You'll see soon enough,” said Alice cryptically, settling on her coils and letting out a sigh. “I'll watch your things. Try not to go too hard on them. Stupid paranoid humans.”

Shrugging off his pack, Ranma turned a curious glance towards Granberia who had taken a similarly relaxed pose against one of the trees. “Didn't you want to see the dragon?”

“If Lord Alipheese prefers not to involve herself in this, I will abide by her decision,” she responded.

“You can go if you want. Nothing on this continent is even remotely threatening to me, least of all those bandits. You might scare them off if they see you though.”

Granberia briefly seemed to share in Ranma's confusion, but comprehension dawned a moment later. “I see. Wouldn't it be best to act in your capacity as Monster Lord to ensure their safety?”

“Maybe. But I have a feeling they'll listen to a cute male more readily.”

“Is there some reason you're hiding information from me?” asked Ranma irritably.

“Yes,” replied Alice simply.

A few seconds passed before Ranma realized she wasn't going to say anything more. “Whatever. I'll be back.”

The trees broke and the mountain range that had only been slightly visible before came into full view, stretching quite a distance in either direction like a wall bordering the ocean. For a moment, Ranma wondered just how easy this bandit cave was going to be to find. Clearly Alice had caught their scent or auras within the vicinity so it couldn't have been that far away, but there was still quite a bit of mountain to cover.

“Unless they're holing up in this incredibly obvious cave,” he murmured. Worth a look, but they'd probably be a bit smarter than to pick a hideout that was barely off of the beaten path. Taking a single step forward, Ranma paused, his eyes moving toward a rather large rock that looked like it had tumbled down from the crags above. “You can come out now, I know you're there.”

“What? How? I was perfectly hidden!”

“Your foot was sticking out and I heard you move when I got close,” lied Ranma, deciding that was easier than explaining about energy signatures and auras.

“Grr...you could have at least pretended to be surprised and let me ambush you!” came the reply as the monstrous bandit walked out from behind the rock.

The 'bandit' was not a vampire or a dragon. In fact, despite the horn on her head and the strange markings on her face, the 'monster' didn't look like anything more than a young girl. Only coming as high as his chest, the bandit looked the part, wearing heavy gloves, a horned helmet, and leather armor just a shade lighter than her dark skin. Still, she was undeniably a cute girl.

Suddenly, Alice's annoyance made a lot more sense. “Wait, don't tell me you're-”

“I am Gob, the Bandit of Earth!” she introduced, her bright blue eyes gleaming with pride. “All trespassers will be made into our slaves!”

“You can't be...I thought you were led by a dragon and a vampire.”

“Oh we have a dragon and a vampire, too,” said the self-proclaimed Bandit of Earth. “But I was on lookout duty today, so you get to fight me first!”

Stepping back behind the rock, the monster girl withdrew her weapon and Ranma's look fell a little bit. The hammer matched her height and then some, with a heavy stone base that looked roughly carved and bound together to the pole. The fact that she was handling it with relative ease was a stark reminder than he couldn't judge a girl like her based on the standards of his own world.

“Take this! Super Earth Bandit Attack: Sandstorm!”

Ranma tensed, only for all the tension to leave his body as the girl reached down and flung a handful of dirt at him. Not even bothering to dodge, Ranma let the clod hit him square in the chest were it promptly crumbled.

Seemingly undeterred by her failed attack, the goblin girl took a two handed grip on her hammer and hefted it up above her head. “Super Earth Bandit Attack: Whirwind!” Widening her stance, the hammer swept out in a wide circle, spinning around rapidly until it looked like the hammer was pulling her instead of the other way around.

Slowly...slowly...incredibly slowly, the girl inched closer to him. It would have been easy to simply take a step to the side, or even several. Instead, Ranma waited for the right moment before bringing his hand up and catching the handle just below the head, rather abruptly stopping the goblin's fierce attack.

Dizzy and wobbling slightly, the monster shook her head, reorienting herself before finally seeing what had stopped her technique. “You stopped it! That was my best technique, too!”

“Were you just expecting me to stand there and take it?” asked Ranma. “A blind person could have avoided that.”

“Sniff...you don't have to be so mean about it...” Uh oh. Tears were starting to well up in her eyes now, her grip on the hammer going slack as she let Ranma take almost all of the weight.

“H-hey, I didn't mean it like that,” said Ranma quickly, setting the hammer down carefully and holding his hands up defensively. “Your plenty strong, but your technique just needs work, that's all!”

Eyes watering, Gob looked up at him. “You...you mean it?”

_What the hell am I doing? She just tried to attack me!_

Ignoring his internal thoughts, Ranma kicked the handle of the hammer into his hand and hefted it up. Taking a look at the goblin girl's size, the martial artist gave the handle a swift chop and neatly severed the wood at just the right height. Turning the weapon around, he briefly examined the head before undoing the bindings and tying them up properly.

Curious, Gob watched him work, her tears fading as he shortened and tightened the crude weapon into something more fitting for her size. “The trick with a weapon like this is to not let the hammer carry you. It's a balance between using the momentum you gain from the weight and using your own strength.”

Finished with his task, Ranma flipped the hammer around and examined the repaired weapon. “And if you're going to be using 'earth' attacks, you can't be wasting time letting go of your weapon, either.”

“But...I don't know any real earth attacks,” admitted Gob sheepishly. “I just took the title because I was the strongest of us four.”

“How about this one then?” said Ranma, giving her a smirk before rising to his feet and taking a stance, letting the head of the hammer linger behind him. “Super Earth Bandit Attack: Sandstorm!” With a strong underhanded swing, Ranma struck the ground with the head of the hammer, scooping up and then throwing a cloud of dirt up into the air.

“And then the follow up...Shockwave!” Turning his body and using the momentum of his earlier swing, Ranma brought the hammer up and over his shoulder as he twisted before bringing it down hard on the ground, cracks appearing in the earth as a small rumble shook the surrounding area.

The goblin girl's face looked positively delighted, her tears all but forgotten. “Woooow! How did you do that? Come on, show me again!”

“I'll do you one better. I'll teach you how to do it,” offered Ranma. “But only if you tell me about your fellow bandits.”

\----------

Resisting the urge to look as he felt a new presence approaching, Ranma kept his attention on the goblin girl in front of him. In just the space of an hour, her stance and balance had improved significantly, and the smaller hammer was doing wonders for her. “Remember, you just want to skim the earth a bit and angle it just right so it goes into your opponent's face,” he reminded her. “And keep the attack name short, too.”

Nodding resolutely, Gob tightened her grip and swung. “Goblin Sandstorm!” she cried out, skimming the earth just right to kick up a dust cloud. “Goblin Shockwave!” Her follow-up wasn't quite as potent, but the tremor through the ground was noticeable. Maybe even enough to knock over an unbalanced opponent.

The pride on Gob's face was adorable. “That was it! I did it! I felt the ground tremble!”

“Yep. You keep at it and you'll be knocking down people twice your size,” encouraged Ranma, impulsively reaching forward and giving Gob's helmet a pat. “Just keep on doing those exercises I showed you and remember what I said about your weapon size and weight.”

“Teach me something else!” she said suddenly. “You're one of those martial arts masters that knows all kinds of techniques, right?”

“Well, I suppose I could...” he began.

“Hey, no fair! I want to learn a cool technique too!” came a sudden shout from behind the same rock Gob had been hiding behind. Just like before, a fearsome 'bandit' appeared, though this one's monster origins were far more obvious from the green and silver tail coiled up beneath her. A young lamia girl, though unlike the goblin, her only 'protection' was two thin strips of cloth covering her chest and a loincloth around the area where her snake and human halves met.

_Then again, it's not as though Alice needed much protection either..._

“You must be Teeny, the Bandit of Water,” said Ranma, winking at Gob before turning his attention to her. “So what's your special talent?”

For a moment, the tiny lamia looked shocked before turning an angry glare to Gob. “You talked, didn't you?”

“He defeated me, I had no choice,” said Gob defensively. “And he taught me a new technique!”

“Grr...you traitor! I'll deal with you right after I finish dealing with him! Supreme Water Bandit Ultimate Coiling Technique!”

Nonplussed, Ranma stood there as the tiny lamia charged him, making a trail in the dirt as she slithered at him and then lunged, wrapping her tail around his legs and her arms around his waist. “Ha! Now you're helpless!”

With deliberate care and slowness, Ranma reached his hands down and gently grabbed her hips before pulling her up into the air, her small tail dangling just on the ground as he held her. “I don't think you're old enough to pull that off yet.”

“Gooob! Help! He defeated my ultimate technique!”

“Just because you give it a long name doesn't make it 'ultimate' you know,” grumbled Ranma as he set her down. Just like the goblin girl, it seemed like her eyes were starting to water. Kami damn his weakness to crying girls. “Okay look, how about I show you how to actually use that tail?”

The waterworks immediately stopped. “Huh? But you're a human. What would you know about fighting with a tail?”

“More than you'd think,” murmured Ranma, briefly thinking back to the way Alice had moved last night at the Sutherland Inn. “Alright, first let's focus on your movement...”

\----------

Monsters were fast learners. That was really the only thing Ranma could think as he watched Gob and Teeny square off with one another, the former having set her hammer aside for a more light-contact sparring session with her bandit friend.

A far cry from the straightforward charging Teeny had done before, she was now utilizing her coils to be far more elusive, weaving and dodging around Gob's strikes. Gob herself had improved a lot too, her stance more firm, her punches carrying more strength, and her speed having been optimized for her smaller form and figure.

At the moment, the two seemed evenly matched, though without her weapon, Teeny did seem to have the edge over Gob with the extra reach her tail afforded her, the goblin having to be careful not to be tripped. Even if her tail wasn't good for coiling like Alice, there was plenty of potential for it to be a nuisance in a fight.

“Hey, no fair! You went playing without us!”

“Yeah, how long were you going to keep us waiting in there?”

Turning his gaze back towards the hiding rock, Ranma watched as the final two members of the Four Bandits made their appearance. Vanilla the Wind Bandit and Papi the Fire Bandit.

“They really are all just little girls,” murmured Ranma to himself, finally confirming the source of Alice's annoyance. It was obvious which one was which. Vanilla was sporting a small black cape and cute bat wings from beneath her long golden hair...and absolutely nothing else save for a white pair of panties. Papi the young dragon seemed a bit more decently dressed, but only because she had tough looking scales on her arms and legs, much like Granberia, though unlike her, she seemed to have a pair of developing wings, too.

“Well I was saving the real training for when all four of you finally showed up,” said Ranma, a bit more loudly. “So what can you two do?”

“I can make any man a slave if they look into my eyes!” boasted Vanilla, stepping forward and staring Ranma directly in the eye. “Just...give me a second. And don't look away!”

A day ago, the light headed feeling and the flash of euphoria would have taken him off guard, but Vanilla was nowhere near Alice's level, and it didn't take much to break her control before it could fully take hold. “Well, you're learning. Keep at it,” said Ranma encouragingly, ignoring her surprised look as he turned to the last of the group. “And you?”

Papi grinned and took in a breath before exhaling, a small stream of fire. “I live up to my title of 'Fire Bandit'!” she said proudly.

“Hey, I only took water bandit because there weren't any titles left!” said Teeny, only to yelp as Gob took the opening to tackle her to the ground. Her advantage was short lived, however, as Gob was tiny enough for the lamia to actually get a couple of coils around and start squeezing.

Something Granberia said surfaced in Ranma's mind. “Wait...Bandit of Fire like...the Swordsman of Fire?”

As one, the four girls suddenly looked rather sheepish. Vanilla was the first to speak up. “We...might have formed our group after the four Heavenly Knights.”

“Well...what if I told you that I've fought with Granberia and I've seen her techniques?” said Ranma. “She almost ran me through with her Thunder Thrust and incinerated my half my clothing with her Vaporizing Rebellion Sword.”

“No way! You should be dead in that case!” accused Papi with a huff. “No one has taken that technique and lived!”

“Well I might have died, but I turned the technique against her,” said Ranma cheekily. “But I can't teach you that. I can teach you something else pretty cool though.”

Hook, line, and sinker. All four of them were brimming with curiosity now, wearing that same eager expression Ranma had when a tantalizing technique was being dangled in front of him. Turning to the rock all of the bandits had hidden behind before, Ranma made a show of bringing his hands together as he formed ki on his palms, smiling a bit as he heard the four simultaneous gasps of awe.

“Moko Takabisha!”

The bright blue ball of energy streaked through the air and struck the rock, shattering the stone and sending fragments flying everywhere. Taking a moment to dust off his hands, Ranma turned back to the four bandits, only just managing to hold back his smile as he saw their eager looks.

“That's a technique I used against Granberia. Anyone can learn it if they want to put the effort in. Although if you just want to keep being bandits...”

“No way! Teach us!”

“I wanna shoot energy balls too!”

“Me! I wanna learn!”

\----------

Any thoughts about how Gob or Teeny might have been a fluke slowly died away as Ranma watched the rapid improvement of the young monster girls. While it wasn't a phenomenal gain, the fact that they were using their abilities more intelligently within the space of a couple hours was impressive. Even going for two hours through various workouts, routines, and small sparring sessions was a feat, though he did have to occasionally keep their attention from wandering by showing off more of his martial arts.

“Alright, that's enough for now. Take a break,” said Ranma, looking towards the sky as the four girls let out sighs of relief and collapsed on the ground. A single thought was on his mind. What now? The fierce bandit threat had been nothing more than children, yet the Iliasburg town was terrified of them. And there was the small problem of Granberia having recently tried to take over the town and putting everyone on edge. And yet, just leaving them to their devices didn't seem like the right thing to do either, even if it did seem like they were doing just fine on their own.

“Oi, I'm going into the woods for a bit. I'll be right back,” said Ranma. “Take another five and get something to eat if you have it.”

A chorus of 'okays' was his response, and a moment later Ranma was slipping through the trees, waiting until he was out of sight before looking up and speaking aloud. “So what now?”

Without even a rustle of the underbrush or a hint to her presence, Alice was there beside him. “It's an odd situation, I'll give you that. Orphaned vampires and dragons aren't common, considering just how tough they are to kill.”

“There's nothing wrong with leaving them on their own,” came Granberia's voice a moment later. “They're resourceful enough to gather food, and among the monsters on this continent, the dragon and the vampire together would be a match for just about any predator.”

“And if they keep stealing from the town? How long until the 'bandit' problem gets serious enough for a bunch of panicked soldiers from Iliasburg to come clean them out?” asked Ranma.

“Hmph. It's not as though the guards there were anything special.”

Letting out a sigh, Ranma turned back to Alice. “You're a monster lord, aren't you? Isn't this the sort of thing you should be taking care of?”

Alice contemplated the question. “There are places dedicated to taking in orphaned monsters, but none in this region. Trying to get them off of this continent presents its own challenges as well.”

“Can't you just order them not to bother the humans?”

“They're children. Do you think they'd listen to me? Or anyone for that matter?” retorted Alice.

“Maybe...” said Ranma, turning his eyes towards Granberia. “They seem to idolize you.”

For a moment, Granberia actually looked flustered. “Me? What could I possibly say to them?”

“I dunno...encourage them to train and get better so they can avoid the guards?” asked Ranma, a bit of frustration creeping in to his voice.

“So you want me to encourage them to become powerful enough to further bully the town?”

“That's not...what I meant,” said Ranma, trailing off slightly.

Alice let out a small sigh. “There's a queen I know on this continent. I don't know her personally, but she might be willing to take them in to her village. It's not something I can order her to do though...or rather, it would be wiser for me not to order such a thing.”

Ranma let that sink in for a bit. He could tell from the sound of Alice's voice that she wasn't hopeful about the idea, or terribly enthusiastic about it either.

“I'm taking them to Iliasburg,” he said finally.

“What?”

“Are you out of your mind?”

Ranma continued despite the protests. “I'll get them to round up all the stuff they stole and return it to Iliasburg. Didn't seem like much in the first place so there probably ain't a whole lot.”

“And what are you going to do when the town lynch mob comes after them?” asked Alice pointedly.

“Then I'll beat them down myself and let Granberia take the damn place,” said Ranma resolutely, storming back into the forest and ignoring their surprised looks. Any town that would be willing to kill or imprison children frankly deserved to be leveled.

The walk back did give him some time to cool off, thankfully, though when he came back into the clearing, he could immediately tell something was off. Gob was the only bandit that remained, a remarkably innocent look on her face as she held her hammer at her side.

“Where are your friends?” asked Ranma casually.

“On a walk,” said Gob innocently. “They needed to get something from the hideout.”

“Uh huh. Well, I have something important to tell them, so I think we should go find them,” said Ranma, stepping past her and heading towards the cave.

_Any second now..._

“Goblin Shockwave!”

The ripple along the ground was quite powerful, and if he hadn't been expecting it, Ranma would have definitely toppled over. Still, he was more interested in seeing the ambush they had set up and let himself take the fall.

“Bandit ambush go!” Slithering along the ground at a rapid rate, Teeny sprung from her hiding spot and quickly coiled around his outstretched arm, pulling it tight, right as her vampire friend latched onto his other arm and bit down with her fangs, a slight feeling of numbness entering the limb in question. The final portion of the ambush came a moment later as Papi leaped out from behind the rubble, her wings carrying her through the air for a bit before she landed hard against Ranma's stomach.

“Ha, got you!” declared Papi proudly, her tail flicking behind her in excitement while her clawed hands pressed down against his shirt.

“That means you're ours now! And you'll have to stay and keep training us!” added Teeny as she squeezed her tail further around his arm.

“And we'll get to use you as our plaything whenever we want!” concluded Vanilla as she released his slightly numb arm. “Oh wow...that tastes really good,” she murmured a bit more quietly.

Carefully ignoring that last bit, Ranma grinned up at Papi. “Very clever, but there's one thing you forgot. I'm a lot stronger than all of you!” With a small grunt of effort, Ranma lifted Teeny and Vanilla upward.

“Ahh! He's escaping!”

“Gob, help us!”

“Keep his arm bound!”

Despite the ambush having been a 'success', it was clear the bandits hadn't thought much beyond it, the four of them scrambling to hold onto him as he inevitably made his way back to his feet, holding Teeny and Vanilla in the air by his arms while Papi and Gob clung to his neck.

“Looks like it's my victory now,” said Ranma as he began to walk with the four of them attached. “And that means you have to do something for me.”

Four pairs of eyes looked at him cautiously. Papi was the one who spoke for all of them. “What's that?”

\----------

The shopkeeper jumped in his chair as a loud thump was heard outside his store. A second later a knock sounded on his door. Cautiously, the provisioner opened it to see the hero of Iliasburg standing behind four small girls.

“Three stolen food barrels...mostly full,” said Ranma, gesturing towards them. “And these four have something to say to you.”

“We're sorry,” said the dragon.

“We're really sorry,” echoed the lamia.

“We were just playing bandits,” insisted the vampire.

“We're really really sorry,” finished the goblin.

The shopkeeper's confusion was plain. “Wait...you mean to tell me that _you four_ were the bandits?”

Mutely, the monster girls nodded.

“Oh for crying out loud, you should have heard that damn merchant going on and on about the fearsome dragon,” said the store owner with an exasperated sigh. “Look, it's alright, but don't do it again, ya hear? The four of you should take up an honest profession.”

“They've already invited me to work at the warehouse,” said Gob excitedly.

“And I'm a maid at the Sutherland Inn!” added Teeny.

“And the blacksmith said that I can do some amazing things with my dragon fire!”

“And what about you, young lady?” asked the store owner after a few moments of silence from the vampire. “Have you ever wanted to learn how to run a store like this?”

Excitedly, Vanilla nodded.

“Well I think I have room for an employee here. But only if you promise to work hard.”

“Yaaay! Thank you!” Rushing up to the store keeper, Vanilla hugged his legs tightly. “I promise I'll work really hard and become the best merchant ever!”

Subconsciously, Ranma let go of the tension he'd been feeling in the back of his mind. With how Granberia and Alice had talked about the idea, he'd been expecting an angry mob at any second, but the results of their apology tour had been anything but. Far from being an angry mob, the townspeople had laughed off the entire thing upon seeing who the 'fearsome bandits' had actually been, even going above and beyond to offer the young girls shelter and employment as they'd brought back the goods they had stolen...or rather, acquired when the overly imaginative merchants ran screaming from Papi's roars.

“Well, that's the last of them,” said Ranma as the four ex-bandits helped the shopkeeper move the barrels inside. “And no angry mob in sight.”

Beside him, Alice looked on with a curious look. “I'll admit, I'm a little surprised. After Granberia came through here, I assumed they would have been even more hostile to monsters.”

“They're little girls, Alice,” retorted Ranma. “You'd have to be a mon...a really terrible person to stay angry at them.”

“Don't think for a second they wouldn't have taken advantage of you if they got the chance,” said Alice bluntly. “They're still monsters.”

“Alice, they're like...twelve or something. How could they possibly-”

Ranma paused as he felt a gentle tug on his sleeve. Looking down, he saw Vanilla holding a large red gem with a nervous look on her face. “Um...we didn't find the merchant who dropped this in the city, so maybe you should take it with you in case you find him?” she offered.

“Oh, sure. That sounds like a good idea,” said Ranma, taking the bright red orb and pocketing it. “If I'm ever in the area again, I'll be sure to give you four more lessons, but keep training with what I showed you, alright?”

Smiling, Vanilla nodded. “Well, actually...we could still use your help. You know...getting all of our stuff into our new hideout, moving the big heavy things around...wouldn't take too long.”

“Well if you need help-” he began, only to freeze up as he saw Alice's look from the corner of his eye. Only then did he notice Vanilla's nervousness. “Actually, we're kind of on a tight schedule. But Gob should be more than enough help, right?”

“Aww...okay then. But next time for sure!” insisted Vanilla.

“Next time,” agreed Ranma with a nervous smile, holding it right until Vanilla vanished out of sight with her friends. “Were they really about to-”

“Yes,” said Alice flatly.

“But they're like-”

“Old enough for monsters.”

“But they-”

“You were the one who enticed them with your martial arts and sweet words. What did you think was going to happen?”

“I only-”

“You really only have yourself to blame. Maybe you should learn a bit more about monsters before you go charming every single one you meet.”

“Will you-”

“Stop finishing your thoughts before they have time to form? No. We're in a hurry, remember? Now go collect your reward for defeating the big scary bandits, hero boy. Granberia is waiting for us.”

Flustered, speechless, and unable to bring up a single retort, Ranma decided that a tactical retreat was in order and quickly disappeared inside the shop to do just that.


End file.
